


Harry Potter and the Unexpected Mother

by StruggleMuggle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Sex is technically underage but not immature. Both parties 14/15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:34:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 20
Words: 239,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24446656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StruggleMuggle/pseuds/StruggleMuggle
Summary: All it takes to make all the difference in the world is for one person to care for another. Baby Harry Potter found caring in the most unexpected of places.Dumbledore/Weasley bashing, Bad Language, Violence, Sex.
Relationships: Daphne Greengrass/Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger/Harry Potter
Comments: 466
Kudos: 1294
Collections: Pyrdiu's Literatureblock





	1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimers:** I don't own any of the characters or world for Harry Potter and don't claim to. All rights belong to JKR.

Additionally, credit for the idea for this story I place squarely on Noacat (FFN) / Hiboudeluxe (AO3), so address any and all celebratory cakes to them, they deserve it. :)

Vernon squished the newspaper as his fleshy palms slapped together and his blood pressure spiked. Ruddiness suffused his flappy jowls and worked its way toward the tip of his nose. "What is that bloody racket!?" He brayed. He could hear it was a child crying, but as he was an incredibly obese and fundamentally lazy person, screaming petulantly was his way of demanding that someone other than himself do something about it.

Petunia simply pressed her lips into a thin line with a "tsk". Just like Vernon, she could hear the incessant child screaming that came from just outside. She wiped her hands on her apron and walked with quick, terse steps to the front door. She opened it, and gasped at the bundle of blankets and screaming child on her doorstep. She picked the child up, and it quieted some. A sealed envelope lay on the doorstep next to the child, so she picked it up and brought it inside. She kicked the door closed and threw the letter onto Vernon's stomach. It was addressed to him.

"What!" He spluttered. "What is this then?! Is that a bloody child?!? Why have you got a bloody child, Petunia?!"

"Read!" She snipped. She jiggled the toddler up and down, and it seemed to quiet the child further.

"Humph!" Vernon wobbled as he broke the seal and grumbled. His eyes scanned the sheet of parchment for just a moment before he broke into enraged shouts. "It's a _FREAK_ , Petunia! Throw it back outside! I'll not have _freakishness_ in my home!"

She snatched the letter from his hand and read it.

" _Lily_!" She hissed. "Everything is always about Lily, even when she's dead! RRrrr!" Petunia held the whimpering child out at arms' length to examine it. It was chubby, as children tended to be. It had a head of pure black hair that stuck out at strange angles, just like its father's had. Its eyes, however, its eyes were exactly the same as Lily's. Vibrant, unnatural green stared back at her, but only for a moment, as it scrunched its eyes shut and began to wail again.

"Tssh!" Petunia hissed again and set the child down on the sofa. "Mind the thing, Vernon. I'm going to inquire at the police what to do with it." She pulled her coat on and picked up her purse and left the house.

Vernon stared at the closed door with his florid jowls wibbling in rage. She was meant to remove the problem, not stick him with it! Bloody shrewish bint! The sound of the thing's whines and whimpers made the skin on the back of his neck shrivel in irritation.

"Shut it!' He screamed at the thing.

The _Freak_ just ignored him and kept on fussing. Vernon put his paper down entirely and sat forward in his chair, leaned over the arm to face the _Freak_.

"I said SHUT IT!" He bellowed. "SHUT YOUR FILTHY FREAK MOUTH!"

The _Freak_ screwed its eyes shut and wailed even louder. Vernon's eye twitched and he stood up from his chair. He pushed his sleeves up.

"Right. In _this_ house, _I_ say what goes on, _Freak_ , and you WILL obey." He reached out and grasped a fistful of black hair and brought his other hand across the _Freak_ 's chubby little face once. "I." Twice, a backhand. "SAID." Thrice. "SHUT." Backhand. "YOUR." Forehand. "FUCKING." Back again. "GOB!" He roared with a final slap. He picked the _Freak_ up and carried it to the cupboard under the stairs. He opened the cupboard and brought the _Freak_ close to his face. "SHUT UP!!!" He screamed at it. He tossed it into the cupboard and shut the door.

He was rewarded with silence once the door was shut, and a righteous smile graced his moustached visage. "That's right, bloody freak. You'll not ruin the peace and quiet in my proper, normal home. I won't have it. Hmph." He sat back down in his chair and resumed his paper. His self-satisfied grin lasted nearly an hour before the quiet was sundered by tiny wailing from inside the cupboard.

He slammed his meaty palms together again and threw the paper to the floor. "Right! That is enough of that!" He yanked the cupboard door open and bellowed at the top of his lungs. "SHUT UP YOU FREAK!!! DO YOU WANT ANOTHER SWAT? SHUT!! UP!!" He raised his hand as a warning, and the little _Freak_ opened its eyes wide as it looked at him, then took a deep breath to scream again, and promptly vanished with a loud POP sound.

Vernon stood up straight, surprised and suddenly quite pleased.

"Well, there you go, then!" He smiled. "Give it a good whatfor, and the _Freak_ goes away! I shall remember that for the future."

The front door opened and Petunia entered, followed by two police and a dour-looking woman in a gingham overcoat.

"Ah Vernon. This is Mizz Shoddingham with Child Services, and Officers Blakely and Dripp." She turned to them, and invited them inside.

"Lovely, lovely. Welcome." Vernon greeted them. He closed the cupboard door and moved into the living room, still pleased to be shot of the squalling brat.

"Where is the child?" Mizz Shoddingham asked.

Petunia turned to Vernon. "Vernon? Where is the child?" She raised her eyebrows and looked around the room.

"Ah." Vernon said, suddenly aware the child was no longer in the house. How to explain it though? "It... ah... mm. It vanished. Pop."

The two police officers shared a look, and Mizz Shoddingham's face drooped into a frown. "Vanished? Pop?"

"Yes, yes! Exactly! I was looking straight at it, and pop! Vanished." Vernon spread his hands and grinned with embarrassment.

Mizz Shoddingham gave the officers a flat look. "Search the house if you please."

Petunia gave Vernon a sharp look, and he shrugged back at her and mouthed the word 'freak', and repeated 'pop!' Petunia frowned harshly at him in return.

Officer Blakely said some quiet words into the radio on her shoulder while officer Dripp ran up the stairs and began searching the bedrooms. After receiving a reply, officer Blakely began looking behind and under the living room furnishings. She even looked up the flue of the chimney. The sound of footsteps and furniture moving around floated down from the upstairs.

"What did the child look like?" Mizz Shoddingham asked.

"Black hair, green eyes. Perhaps a year old." Petunia told her.

Officer Blakely looked in all the cupboards in the kitchen, the pantry, and the laundry room. She even opened the washer and dryer.

"Do you have any idea who the child might have belonged to?" Mizz Shoddingham asked Petunia.

Petunia set her lips in a thin line and shook her head. "It was in that blanket there, it was on our doorstep this morning. Never seen it before, and there was no-one about outside, not anywhere near."

"I see." Mizz Shoddingham said as she wrote the details down.

"Fresh blood here." Officer Blakely said tersely. She pulled her head out from the cupboard under the stairs and turned her torch off. She strode toward the door while speaking in tense tones into her shoulder radio.

"I'm afraid you won't be allowed to leave the premises, Missus Dursley. I suspect you and your husband may be under arrest shortly. However, as you were in the company of the officers and myself, I don't believe you will have anything to worry about personally. Depending on what the officers find, however, I cannot say the same for your husband."

Petunia frowned and sat on her sofa as she breathed out through her nose. She looked over at Vernon, who spread his arms and looked over at her in return with a look of helpless apology on his face. Unlike these poor civil servants, she knew that _freakishness_ existed and didn't doubt for a moment that the child had in fact simply vanished. However, she also knew her husband's temper and knew with certainty he'd done something to the child that made it vanish. Well, she was safe, she'd been with the civil servants when Vernon had done whatever he'd done. He was facing a possible murder charge. It didn't matter whether he was innocent or not, he would be arrested and that meant Petunia was finished in this neighbourhood. She would have to take Dudley and divorce Vernon as soon as possible. Their savings might make the transition to another town easier, but she would need to secure employment before they actually moved. She made a mental note to speak to their solicitor and find out what Vernon's incarceration meant for her financially.

If things went well she'd end up shot of the stupid pig, and better off for it. She missed the heady days of youth when Vernon had been a normal bloke rather than a raging walrus. There wasn't a single day or week or month she could point to and say 'that's when things changed', but change they had. Vernon had ended up lazy and spiteful and neglectful of her, after years of assurances that she was beautiful and desirable. Now she'd not be shocked in the slightest to find out he had mistresses. He'd not touched her once since Dudders had been born. Well, he was going to get what was coming to him now, and she'd not be caught on his sinking ship. She and Duddykins were going to vanish as well, with as much financial security as possible.

She held her chin high as more officers arrived with the forensics team. Those _Freaks_ had barged into her life again, and within a half-day ruined what it had taken her ten years to achieve. It didn't matter though, she would carry on. She would take the ashes of her life and create a new one from them. A better one. And if she ever married again, she would make sure he was perfectly _Normal_ , without so much as a hint of _freakishness_ , AND attentive to her needs.

She looked over at Vernon and he had the gall to try to pat her hand as if to tell her it would be alright, the ignorant prig. She removed her hand and simply regarded him with cold eyes, and she hoped he understood her message. It _would_ be alright, perfectly alright, as soon as he went to jail.

She made a mental list of who to contact and in what order as the civil servants did their jobs and tore her lovely home apart. As the minutes stretched into hours and hard-faced Inspectors showed up and asked hard questions, Petunia was reminded of one simple truth:

It simply didn't pay to be involved with freakishness.

  
  


* * *

  
  


It wasn't the sound itself, but the plaintive quality of it that roused her. The sound itself was just mindless wailing, but beneath that, in the emotions that spawned it, there was fear- Fear, pain, loss, and want.

It was the wailing of a shardling.

She listened and understood the information behind the noise. It cried for hunger. It cried for cold. It cried for protection. Most of all, it cried for Love.

That meant its Mother was not present. That meant she had been killed or captured. The thought blossomed pain in her chest as her own thoughts naturally jumped to her own Mate, captured and taken before they could Nest.

She rose from her hoard and lumbered to the edge of her lonely, forever empty nest, and gazed into the distance. It was bright out, though clouds did grey the sky and for that she was grateful. She spotted the shardling almost immediately. It lay on its back in the yellowed grass atop the bluff directly across the ravine from her nest. It was alone, and it was.... a pinkskin. She hadn't had any dealings with pinkskins before, aside the ones that had taken her Mate, and she was still furious about it. She would always be furious about it. Better, then, that there be one less pinkskin in the world. She turned her head away and almost left her perch on the edge of her nest, but she noticed two things that prevented it.

The first was that the plaintive cries of the pinkskin shardling had grown weaker. They grew weaker as each moment passed, each lungful of air the thing drew. It was weakening and would die soon, unless she did something about it. For some reason she could not place, her own _need_ for young latched onto the pinkskin and would not let go despite her fury.

The second thing she noticed was an eagle, its spiral search pattern ended, dove directly at the shardling. Renewed cries of shock and pain and fear carried on the wind from the pinkskin, and she could smell its hot metallic blood on the wind.

She was airborne before she understood why, and watched the eagle with its talons embedded within the pinkskin begin to eat. It pecked at the soft belly and drew more blood and more cries. It pulled a small strip of skin from the belly of the shardling and angled its head back to swallow when her jaws closed around it and left the talons behind, still stuck into the wailing shardling.

She circled and landed next to the pinkskin after swallowing the mid-morning eagle snack. The pinkskin shardling was leaking red and turning blue. She had never seen a pinkskin do that before. Was it normal? She considered for a moment, and decided it was likely not. It was somewhat pretty, she decided. Pinkskins were apparently colourful things.

She scooped the shardling into her claw along with the ground it lay upon, and flew back to her nest. She knew what she would have to do in order to preserve the functioning of the tiny thing, and while it was unpleasant, it was no real threat to her. She set the shardling and its earth down next to her Hoard, and breathed on it to heat it up again. Once it radiated a cozy warmth, she retrieved the Hateful Thorn from its special hiding place. She used the gleaming instrument to cut the tip of her tail, much more cleanly than she could have with her claw. That was the reason she kept the dangerous thing - that, and if it belonged to her it could not then be used against her.

She thrummed deep in her chest and stirred her power to life. It swirled and coursed through her veins, but she directed it to the tip of her tail. As it arrived, she fed the tip of her tail to the pinkskin's tiny, rabbit-toothed maw. Rather than biting and chewing and gulping, as she expected, the shardling held her tailtip in its mouth and... _pulled_ somehow. She could see it swallow her blood and the power it contained, but it did not consume her the way her own offspring might have. It was strange, but to see that made her feel somehow _closer_ to it.

Her power had begun to heal her the moment she cut her tail, even as the same power flowed out of it. When the cut was fully healed only a moment later, the pinkskin let out a pained cry and let go of her tail. It's colour slowly turned from blue to pink, and the open, leaking spots on its body closed. New skin grew where the eagle had torn it. Its cries returned with vigor that she had not witnessed previously, and grew in intensity for several wingbeats while its form swelled. Its hindquarters lengthened, its torso lengthened, its forequarters lengthened, and its shoulders grew further apart.

She was confident this was also not normal pinkskin behaviour.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore strode into his office and immediately reached out to his bowl of lemon drops to pop two into his mouth. He leaned back in his chair and placed each of his thumbs against its corresponding eyebrow.

Two weeks was nothing compared to the amount of work to be done, and yet at the same time it was an eternity in the company of debaters and politicians. He was both himself, and had earned his place in the ICW, but it seemed that every single year faces got younger, speeches got longer, and actual action got less and less.

He took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out, and smiled at the scent of sweet lemon. As he relaxed and his headache receded, something niggled at the back of his skull. Something was wrong.

He dropped his hands from his forehead and glanced around the office. There were a large number of amusing little gadgets on his desk and on shelves about the room. He catalogued each one as he witnessed it spinning or whirring or swinging.

All except one.

There were two new ones on the shelf behind his desk, beneath the portrait of Phineus Black. One of them was keyed to the wards surrounding Number Four Privet Drive, and that one was still chuffing along in place as it was meant to. The one next to it - the one he'd keyed to Harry Potter - was silent. Its soothing whirr was nothing but hollow quiet.

Harry Potter was dead.

  
  


* * *

  
  


The copy of The Sunday Times Minerva perused was the victim of sudden violence as she crushed it in one hand and rose from behind her desk to stride more quickly than she had in many years toward Albus's office. His door was closed when she arrived. He normally knew she was coming and opened it before she got to it; the fact that he hadn't meant he knew and didn't want to eat the humble pie she was going to serve him.

She didn't bother to knock, she Vanished the door entirely. He was there behind his desk and had the nerve to look _surprised_ at her entrance.

"Do you realize what you've _done_?!" She shouted at him as she threw the newspaper at his chest. "I _TOLD YOU, ALBUS!_ I bloody _told you_ they were horrid!"

She paced back and forth in her fury, far too angry to maintain even the semblance of control. He had murdered their saviour, murdered an innocent child, and _ENDED_ the oldest, most noble lineage in existence. The whiskered idiot would probably try to keep it quiet, too, just like every other bloody thing. She wouldn't have it. She strode to his floo and grabbed a handful of powder.

Albus flicked his wand at her, and she collapsed. "I'm afraid we can't have that." He said as he got up from his seat. He heaved her into a chair, then stood up straight with a grimace of pain and a hand at the small of his back. He was getting too old for that.

"I apologize, Minerva, but information needs to be contained. A spot of loyalty, a twinge of compulsion, and, of course... _Obliviate_."

He woke her a moment later.

"Careful, Minerva." Albus's smooth voice cautioned.

"What... what was I saying?"

"You've just spent an hour ranting about Crouch throwing you out of his office after not listening to you about Harry. You just finished saying you were going to curse him for not being concerned about the child's welfare. Speaking of which, when was the last time you ate, Minerva? You should look after yourself better."

"Yes, yes. I will, Albus. I can't _believe_ neither the ministry nor the paper give a dram the boy's _dead_."

"Well, I think it's clear who we can trust." Albus smiled at her.

"Quite right. My apologies for ranting, Albus. Thank you for listening." She stood up and headed for the door.

"Are you sure you're alright, Minerva?"

"Yes, I'll be fine, thank you." She exited his office and he could hear her thick heels on the stones as she walked back to her own. He cast a quick Notice-Me-Not on himself, and Apparated directly to Scotland Yard.

He found Dursley exactly where the muggle paper had said he was.

"Now see here, you freaks can't just come waltzing -" Dursley started to protest and then froze as he flicked his wand at him. _Petrificus Totalis_ was ever so useful. Without preamble he looked the disgusting lardpot of a man directly in the eyes and pulled the story of the child's disappearance from his mind.

"Apparation, so young!" Albus mused. He'd not have expected such a thing - though he'd not have expected Dursley to slap a baby either. He'd have to keep _that_ under wraps forever. Where would the boy go though? Godric's Hollow? Worse, to Sirius? Albus frowned. Sirius was the boy's Godfather, and he would never stop attacking until the boy was in his custody, like a dog with a bone. He would have to take steps to secure Sirius and remove him from the Arithmancy. It was a good thing he'd thought to seal James and Lily's Will just in case.

He'd thought it would be impossible for anyone but Tom to kill the boy, and he was pleased that he seemed to be correct in that assumption. It was a shame, really. Dursley might have been the perfect tool for keeping the boy timid and controllable.

No matter, he would adjust his plans accordingly. He could always give him the memory of abuse even without actual abuse. He also knew that the boy would show up to Hogwarts in September of 1991, so that left him time to prepare. First, however, there were loose ends to tie up. He would have to get the letter back from Dursley's home, and preferably the boy's blanket. The charms he'd placed on it were rife with his magical signature.

He'd also have to deal with Dursley, of course.

" _Avada Kedavra_."

  
  


* * *

  
  


"You must _focus_ , Hidden Colours. Do not still your mind, do not push away from the surging of your blood. You must _feel_ it course through you. You must ride it with your mind, circulate through yourself. Resonate with it."

"Yes, Mother. I am trying." He squat upon his haunches with his eyes closed. She could feel his progress; it was substantial, but the blockage came from within. She suspected it was more questions about his people.

The Nascent gathered his eyeridges as he concentrated.

" _Flow_ , my Young. Feel your blood move, your core thump, your air as it feeds them. Be calm while you rage. Flow to the source of your thoughts. Be within and without."

"Calm... while I rage." His breathing became deeper and slower, and she could feel him begin to understand. His magic began to flow.

"Feel everything around you. Feel your awareness grow."

The floor of the nest began to tremble. Wind began to spiral around the boy.

"Yes, that's it... that's it. Resonate."

His magic swelled to heights that matched her own as he finally claimed himself. He threw back his head and breathed a column of white-blue flame into the night sky that burned the brightest she had ever seen. She smiled to herself then, satisfied. They would have all seen that. Every last one of them.

When his breath finally left him, he drew a deep, shuddering one, and with a smile up at her, he fell onto his side, asleep.

"Rest, HIdden Colours. You've done well." She rumbled. She picked him up from the floor and placed him atop his tiny hoard to rest.

  
  


* * *

  
  


It was certainly _more_ difficult to climb the spire to the nest with the goat slung about his shoulders, but it wasn't what he would term _difficult_ by any real measure of the term.

"Good morning, Mother." He greeted her as he crested the lip and entered the nest.

"You're up early today. That is good."

"You said today would be a long day, I thought it best to start with a good meal." He dropped the longhorned mountain goat to the stone floor and gripped fistfuls of its skin. With a jerk of his shoulders, he tore it open. Blood and entrails spilled onto the floor. He picked up the goat and allowed the innards to spill to the floor in front of Mother.

"Thank you, my Young. So thoughtful you are."

"You're my Mother." He said with a shrug. "I would do so even if I liked the slithery bits."

She chuffed quietly and scooped the entrails up with her tongue and slurped them down with a wiggle of her long, sinuous neck. He hammered his fist on the hip of the goat and crushed it, then pulled its leg backward and tore the skin to free the leg entirely. He pushed the rest of the goat toward Mother, and went to sit atop his hoard as he started to stoke his magic and Resonate. He breathed gently onto his hoard to warm it and himself, then blasted a spot on the stone floor on the far side away from Mother. He heated the stone until it warped the air above it, then threw his goat leg onto it. The hair and skin shrivelled almost immediately, and the juices began to baste it as it cooked.

Mother blew a short gout of flame as she snorted.

"I know, I know, Mother. Why would I ruin such a lovely meal by heating it." He grinned at her. "I'm a pinkskin. It's just better this way. To me, anyway."

"I love you as well, my Young." She bumped his ribs with her snout. "It is about you being a pinkskin that I wished to speak with you this morning."

He reached out with his magic and turned the cooking haunch over. He waited respectfully for her to speak.

"When the sun reaches apex, there will be a Conclave this day. It is my intent to Declare you."

His eyes went wide. "Really?! Do you really think I'm ready, Mother?!"

She nuzzled him affectionately. "Yes, my Young. You can hunt, you can breathe, you know the laws, and you respect Territory. You are ready."

"That's great!" He wrapped his arms around her head and squeezed gently.

"It will not be so easy as you think, Hidden Colours. You are a pinkskin, and no pinkskin has ever been Declared before."

His joy evaporated. "Oh. The others will Challenge."

"It is almost certain. You know the Laws, a challenge to you must be equivalent. You won't have to face any of my peers, only your own. You may die today. I do not think you will. You have proven both unexpectedly powerful and intelligent. Mind what you have learned. Exercise Awareness."

He would fight one of the Svurtr today. He may very well die. He took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out. Mother had confidence in him, and she always knew best. He could do no less. To lack confidence in himself would be to disrespect Mother.

He nodded and hugged her again. "I understand, Mother. I will do my very best to live and make you proud."

"I know you will, my Young. I am very pleased with you."

Her words made warmth bloom in his chest. She'd never said anything like that to him before. It made a hard, sharp-scaled feeling surround his desire to make her proud.

Armed with the knowledge that he would likely have to fight for his life shortly after apex, he decided to only eat four or five bites of his breakfast haunch. Enough to provide fuel, not enough to weigh him down.

True to Mother's word, they descended into the central valley just as the sun stopped rising higher in the sky. Other Svurtr families were there already, with several more clearly visible against the grey clouds.

His appearance caused some of the younger Svurtr to hide behind their parents, and some of their parents to rear up in aggressive display. Hidden Colours couldn't help but wonder if it was his wingless flight that startled them or the fact that he traveled with Mother but was a pinkskin. He would have preferred to run since flying tired him greatly, but it was important he be seen as capable. It reflected on Mother.

He landed next to Mother and sat on his haunches in front of her, as the other Young did with their mothers, and just like them held his tongue and paid attention. He listened, but otherwise sat very still and did as little as possible to try to rest and recover.

The other adults strayed to the very edge of disrespecting Mother as they neither looked at nor interacted with her. They tried to shy as far away from her as possible, but they were constrained by their places in the circle, so nothing much changed at all. More and more Svurtr families arrived and took their places in the circle, and in the space of ten or twenty wingbeats they were all assembled and waiting only on Blocks-the-Moon to arrive. It was her right as Matriarch to arrive when she chose, and Hidden Colours was grateful for every moment he had to rest.

Blocks-the-Moon arrived shortly - too soon for his liking, and landed in her place at the apex of the circle while every Svurtr bowed. She looked at the assembled Svurtr and shook her neck. "Conclave is entered." She decreed.

The assembled Svurtr lifted their heads and settled.

"Territory! Who disputes with whom?" Blocks-the-Moon asked solemnly.

Mother had told him that Territories were all old and set since her parents' time. Usually Territory disputes only happened when a Svurtr was old and feeble and Youngless, so it came as a surprise when a large male Svurtr stepped forward.

"Nightwater, what is your dispute?" She asked him.

"My eastern reaches produce less and less prey. I suspect Ten Goats of treachery."

Blocks-The-Moon blew a gout of flame from her nostrils and turned to Ten Goats. "How do you answer, Ten Goats?"

Hidden Colours had been trying not to stare at Ten Goats the entire time he'd been there. Ten Goats was like no Svurtr he'd ever seen before. He wasn't stunted - Ten Goats was still far larger than he was - but he had a certain roundness to his body that was completely out of place, and as he lumbered forth into the circle to answer the dispute, his steps were exaggerated and _round_ , like his frame. He moved like a water bird. How did he even fly?

Ten Goats had no Mate and no Young behind him as he entered the circle. "I enter no other Territories. The prey in my territory is my prey."

Blocks-the-Moon rumbled in her chest, a sign of irritation. "As usual you answer with no answer. Once Conclave is concluded I will travel to your territory to see for myself."

"I protest! Territory is territory! My prey is my prey!" Ten Goats seemed... not excited... scared? Hidden Colours couldn't quite put his talon on what Ten Goats's behaviour was. It was clear he didn't want Blocks-the-Moon anywhere near his Territory.

"Discourse was given. Action decided. Do you wish to Challenge me, Ten Goats?" Blocks-the-Moon purred sibilantly.

"No! No... I... I accept the action decreed." Ten Goats bowed his head, but his eyes and voice dripped anger and resentment.

Hidden Colours was confused by that. He resolved to ask Mother later how anyone could say one thing but mean another.

Ten Goats returned to his place in the circle, walking like a water bird, and Blocks-the-Moon gave everyone a wingbeat to settle down before she spoke again.

"Territory resolution is delayed. Who brings Young forth to Declare?"

Two Mothers nudged their Young into the circle, and they took the hint to congregate in the center of the circle. He felt Mother's nudge on his backside as well, and remembered he was supposed to go too. He walked over to the others and relaxed on his haunches once again.

Blocks-the-Moon reared back on her tail and flapped her wings twice in surprise. "Swims-in-stars! You would Declare a pinkskin!?"

His Mother regarded the Matriarch calmly. "I have raised him since he was a shardling. He speaks. He breathes. He flies. He hunts. He respects Territory. He is Fit and I would Declare him such."

"NO!" A voice to his left cried. "NO! Pinkskins killed my Mother! I will not allow a pinkskin among Svurtr!" A large adult male stood next to the speaker, who looked to be only slightly older than Hidden Colours.

"You wish to Challenge the Declaring of this Young, Breathes First?"

"I do!" Breathes First rose up on his haunches with his wings spread and threatened him directly. "There is no place for you or your kind here!" He hissed derisively.

Blocks-the-Moon turned from Breathes First to look at him directly. "How many summers have you, Young one?"

"I have ten summers, Matriarch." He replied respectfully. Some of the assembled Svurtr hissed as he spoke, clearly surprised that he could.

"You are of age. You will be allowed to defend yourself. How do you respond to Breathes First's challenge?"

"I am very sorry pinkskins killed his Mother, that is a pain I would not want. I am no pinkskin. I am a Svurtr. I will kill him to prove it if I must."

"You must. All Challenges are to the death."

"I understand, Matriarch." He bowed his head again.

"Return to your Mother, I give you one wingbeat to prepare."

The circle of Svurtr opened wider to give them room to fight.

"He will breathe first, as his name says." Mother told him when he returned to her. "Let him waste his breath. Resonate. Maintain your power, use it as speed. He will try to catch you with his talons once his breath is faded. Fight well. Save your breath until you are close and cannot miss. Survive, my Young."

He bowed his head low to her. "I will do my best, Mother."

She nudged his head with her snout. "Know that even if you die I am proud of you, my Young."

He grinned at her and nuzzled her snout with his head. His wingbeat was almost up, so he simply turned from Mother and strode into the circle. He stoked his power as he walked forward to meet Breathes First. They stood in front of each other as they waited for Blocks-the-Moon to begin their combat. Breathes First glared hatred at him, but for some reason that only made him excited.

"Should Breathes First win the Challenge, pinkskins will be forever barred from the Svurtr. Should Hidden Colours win the challenge, he will be Declared and the way open for other pinkskins in the future. Begin." Blocks-the-Moon had no sooner started the combat than Breathes First lived up to his name. Hidden Colours had anticipated it, thanks to Mother, and leapt sideways and forward so that Breathes First had to move his whole body to be able to reach him with his breath.

Hidden Colours continued to run faster than Breathes First could turn, but he kept right on breathing for two whole wingbeats and never even came close to warming his hindquarters. He exhausted his breath and closed his mouth as his nostrils flared. He changed directions suddenly and tried to slam Hidden Colours with his tail, but he was aware of Breathes First's change in posture, and simply leapt over his tail.

That was when he made his mistake.

He should have reversed his own direction, but instead Hidden Colours simply ran forward as he sought distance from his foe. Breathes First was much larger and therefore faster than he was, and even though he was aware of Breathes First racing after him, he could not go fast enough to escape the clutch of his foe's talons. Great ragged, red rents opened across his back and spilled pain into his mind as he flew to his right and rolled on the grass.

Breathes First slammed a talon down on him, through him, just under his ribcage on his right side. Pain exploded inside him and he struggled to make his lungs work, but despite all the damage the important part of his mind still worked. He spiked his power as Breathes First reared his head back to bite him, and Hidden Colours breathed as his enemy's fanged maw descended. The column of white-blue fire lanced upward and engulfed Breathes First's head, then continued on and on into the sky.

All tension left Breathes First, and his body collapsed. His talon was wrenched free of Hidden Colours' body, and almost jerked him to his feet.

"Take his heart." His Mother called. "Take his heart or you will die."

She was right, of course. Mother was always right. He knelt in front of his foe's body and used his power to cut a long slice beneath one of Breathes First's chest plates. He could feel his own heart begin to quiver irregularly as his blood ran down the right side of his body. He had killed enough prey to know his time was short, and that spurred his movements. He levered one of the chest plates up and tore the skin and muscle beneath. He made a hole just large enough for his arm, and shoved it inside his enemy's chest. The heart still beat in his hand as he took hold of it and pulled. It came loose with a great squelch and began to beat faster. It still had bits of flesh and fat and long... things dangling from it. It was only the second one he'd ever seen up close. The first had been his first kill so many years ago, before he understood that Mother deserved those bits for herself. He took the bright purple organ from his foe's chest and shoved it into his own, through the hole that leaked his blood and upward into his chest.

For a moment there was nothing, and Hidden Colours looked toward his Mother, certain he was about to die. The thought upset him, he found. He would never meet his Mate. Never sire Young. He would never claim Territory, and worst of all he would never fly again.

Then he felt the enemy's heart _move_. It beat, yes, but the sensation wasn't of beating, it was of the organ moving around inside him. It settled into a place in his chest on the opposite side from his original heart, and blossomed into an inescapable ball of pain. He froze. He burned. Acid coursed through his veins. His back arched, his mouth screamed, and the rest of the world ceased to exist.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Wat the fook were tha'?!" Darcy hissed. Argonna's eyes still tracked the stream of white-blue light as it shot into the sky.

"Keep yer voice doon!" She whispered back. "Ye want fifty black dragons up yer arse?"

Darcy shook her head. "I dinnae want me own boyfriend up me arse. Yer boyfriend, maybe."

"Theivin' witch!" Argonna whispered back with a grin. She rose up on her elbows to peek over the lip of the bluff. The dragons were all still in a circle, watching one in the center. The one in the middle was lying on its side, quiet and still. It had no head.

"Can ye see wat's goin' on?" Darcy whispered.

"Nae. Jus' a mo'." She took her wand out and cast an Eagle Eye charm on herself. It took a moment to be able to focus and not get queasy, but when she was used to the enhanced eyesight, she reached out and clutched at Darcy's arm. "A bai! There's a bai doon there! 'E's thrashin aboot on the graind in the maiddle of 'em all. Soom kainda black mess coomin’ out his haid."

"Are ye sure?"

"DAIfinitely a bai. Nae a man yet, but luvly bits naetheless. He's quaite, quaite nakid."

"Now I wanna see!"

"Toof. We hae tae git back an' tell da aboot it."

"Ye jus' want te keep 'im te yersailf. An' ye call me a thievin' witch."

"Shut it, an' move yer arse. I dinnae fancy bein' roon when tha' pairty ends."

They crept backward on their elbows and knees until they were not in danger of being spotted by the dragons below, then stood and ran a short way down the bluff before they Apparated home.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Before he even opened his eyes he could tell they were waiting for him. He could feel the attention on him like the hum of drying tendons in the wind. He opened his eyes and squinted at the brightness, even though the cloud cover was dense.

"He lives. He is Declared." Blocks-the-Moon's voice called out.

His hand went to his chest as he remembered being transfixed by Breathes First's talon. Most of the right side of his body was covered in his blood, but the hole in his torso was gone. He took a deep breath and smelled the wet highlands, smelled the thick grey clouds full to bursting that roiled above. He felt... _different_. He felt strong, he felt whole, he wasn't in any pain, but he did not feel the same as he had before. He would have to ask Mother what it meant.

He went to Breathes First's sire and bowed low to him, then returned to Mother. Hidden Colours was sad that he needed to kill Breathes First, but he would not die for anyone willingly. Not even because pinkskins had killed his mother.

The other two Young were Declared without any challenge after that, and returned to their parents with happy nuzzles.

Blocks-the-Moon declared the Conclave concluded and immediately set off into the air with Nightwater, likely to visit Ten Goats's Territory. Ten Goats took several galumphing bounds while beating his wings hard, but managed to somehow claw his way into the air. He set off after Nightwater and Blocks-the-Moon.

The rest of the Svurtr took the opportunity to visit and speak with each other, except of course Mother and her disgusting pinkskin Young. Once unbound by circle protocol, the rest of the Svurtr immediately moved away from them both. Mother turned and ignored the slight against her as she walked him away from the congregation.

"I meant eat his heart, or drink it, though your solution seems to have worked as well. Do you feel up to flying back to the nest?" She asked him.

Hidden Colours smiled at her and reached for his power - and was stunned to find it instantly at his talons. He started to Resonate immediately, and lifted silently and swiftly into the air.

He settled back against his hoard, still warm from his breath earlier in the day. The stone floor had kept his breakfast warm as well, so he resumed eating. He was surprised at his own hunger.

"I am proud of you, my Young. Happy and touched with sorrow, but very very proud."

"Sorrow, Mother?" He paused and set the goat haunch down again.

"You are Declared. You are Fit. It is time for you to leave the nest. Time to travel and hunt and find a Mate before you make a nest of your own."

"What? I have to _go_?"

She chuffed at his sudden distress and nuzzled him. "It is not an immediate thing, Hidden Colours. It means you are free now. You are free to go explore the world, to answer the questions that swirl inside you like stars in the sky. You are always welcome in my nest, I am your Mother, even if you did not come from one of my eggs."

"Oh. That doesn't seem so bad."

"It isn't bad. It is a gift. You have proven Fit. I also have other reasons for saying you should go."

"Other reasons?"

"You are a Svurtr, my Young, but you are also a pinkskin. You know nothing of them, not their speech, not their ways, not their depths. You will need to learn such. You will need to learn to be one of them, because you are."

"I understand, Mother. It's just... If it was so grand to be a pinkskin, why did I appear over there? Why would I become a Svurtr in the first place?"

She nudged his ribs. "That answer will only come when you understand the pinkskins. When you learn your history and your place among them. I know you know this already."

He sighed. Mother always saw through him.

"I don't want to leave you."

"I want you to grow."

She was right, of course. He knew she was right. She was even right that the faster he left the more time he would have to learn his way among the pinkskins.

Mother turned in the nest and used her tail to point in a direction. "If you go that way, for thirty wingbeats of flight, you will find some pinkskins who have been helpful in the past. Svurtr allow them because they have never harmed any. I thought they might help you to at least learn their speech."

"You're probably right. You're usually right."

"I only want the best for you, my Young. When you are confused or lonely, you can always come to visit your Mother."

He smiled and threw his arms around her neck and held her for a long moment. When he let go, he took a step back. "I will, Mother. I will come and tell you all about what I've seen and learned.

"I would like that, Hidden Colours. I would like that very much."

He smiled at her, and wrapped himself in his power. He rose into the air and flew in the direction she had shown him.

After thirty wingbeats, just as Mother had said, he came to an unnatural place. It looked to be made of trees, but somehow _smoothed_. He guessed it was a pinkskin nest. Pinksins apparently made nests like sharp-edged boils on the ground rather than the way nature intended.

He touched down on the ground outside the place, and several pinkskins emerged from it almost immediately. They looked a little like he did, but their skins were deformed and baggy, and _fluffy_ in some cases. He wondered what kind of sickness could cause such a thing. He was suddenly less sure about being there. He didn't want any kind of disfiguring affliction.

One pinkskin who was taller and broader than the others came out of the nest then and gabbled something at the others who stood there looking at him. They went back closer to the nest, but still looked at him. The bigger one - a Mother or Father maybe - pointed a twig at him. Was that a greeting of some kind?

In the background, one of the females held a rock to her face, and flashes of light came from it.

He stuck his talon out at the pinkskin male and smiled.

The pinkskin waved a talon at him, so he waved one back. Their speech sounded like birdsong and goat bleating all mixed together, it was very strange. Still, he supposed he was there to learn it, so he might as well try.

The parent walked toward him carefully, as if it was afraid he might fly away. It put the twig into a pouch in its skin and offered a claw to him, so he offered one back. It gripped his claw and raised and lowered it. Was it another greeting? Or something else?

The pinkskin reached up slowly, carefully, while it gripped claws with him, and brushed his hair to the side of his face. It's eyes opened wide.

"Airy fook'n Pottarrh!" It said.

"Airy fook'n Pottarrh!" He repeated. He hoped he did it right.


	2. Chapter 2

  
  


"I cannae ken it, Fairgus. The lad jus' sooks infairmation like a spoonge. He remaimbers _Aivrythin_ , an he's no jus' remaimbrin', he's _usin_ ' it corraictly. He's made the connaictions in his haid. I've naiver seen anythin' like it."

"Well, it's Airy fook'n Pottarrh, innit?"

"Mind yer toongue, Fairgus MacFusty!" She slapped his shoulder. "It's _yer_ fault the fairst wairds oot his mouth were cairsin."

"Aye, tha's my shame. I've been a wee bit lax since the gairls grew."

"Maisie, wha's cairsin'?" Harry asked from the doorway to the kitchen. The boy was always eating something, though never very much. He'd already grown an inch and a half in the month he'd been staying with them.

Maisie frowned at Fergus and slapped his arm again before she turned to Harry. "Cairsin' is usin' bad lainguage or vulgar, crass words."

"Which pairt o' me name is vulgar or crass?" He looked at her with open, innocent curiosity.

"The pairt that dinnae belong in yer name, Harry. Yer name is Harry James Pottarrh. Fairgus insairted fook'n in it since he dinnae believe what 'is eyes war taillin' 'im. So no pairt of yer name be vulgar or crass, luv, that were all Fairgus."

"Oh, so fook'n isn't pairt of me name, an' tha's the crass bit."

"Aye, ye've got it."

He grinned at them and bit into an apple. "Thanks," He said, and wandered back outside.

"An' 'is ears are entirely too sharp." She sighed. "'E needs a proper chaickup, Fairgus. 'E needs a better education than I can give as well. An' before ye start te blusterin', I agree with ye we should keep 'im pairt of the family. Mairlin knoos wha' the likes o' them noble sods would do te the par bai. At least here wi' us he's got some anonaimity."

"I dinnae disagree luv, but ye knoo we cannae stop the quaistion from bein' asked. I'll go doontoon tomarrah an' see wha bukes I can fine. Braingin' a healer here might be a waste o' time in any case, wai've yet te get ainythin' te wairk on 'im."

"Aye, I'd no thought o' tha."

"Ye knoo I'd naiver sit by an' let a bai hurt. If soomthin' 'appens t'im, we'll get 'im te hospital straightaway, arigh'?"

"I suppoose tha'll have te do thain. He'll have te go t'Hogwairts befaire too long in any case, an' 'is name'll come oot then."

"Best we can do is prepare the poor lad f'rit best we can."

  
  


* * *

  
  


"They're _so strange_ , Mother. I'm learning a great deal though, and I find myself enjoying the time I spend with them. Did you know they have more than one language?"

"That is very strange. How do they communicate?"

"They don't, not well. I'm learning four of their languages right now. It would be like dividing the Svurtr up into north, south, east, and west, and each group speaking a different language. It isn't bad enough there are Territory disputes and Breeding disputes, the pinkskins fall to warring just because they don't understand each other."

"How can they be smart enough to remember different languages and stupid enough to war over being stupid?"

"I don't know, Mother. Like I said, they're very strange. I already have two more names as well. My first name, the name I had before you named me is Harry James Pottarrh. I don't know what it means yet, but apparently Pottarrh is the name passed down from Parent to Young, and is very very old. My newest name is Duncan MacFusty, and the pinkskins that are teaching me all have that last name MacFusty, it is the name of their family."

"So they have accepted you as family?"

"They do act that way, yes. I hear them talking about me when they don't think I can. They say that I will have to go back to being Harry James Pottarrh in a short while, when I've learned as much as I can from them - that's called being 'caught up'. Then I will have to go to a place where there are many Young of my age who are all learning to be adults."

"That sounds promising! If all the Young females and males are in one place, they won't have to search far to find Mates."

"I don't know, Mother. I don't know if I'll ever really understand the pinkskins. I agree with you, and if I do find my Mate, then that will be nice, but I'm not very hopeful just now."

"You are still very new, my Young. You will know when you are ready to find a Mate. It does not matter where you are or what you are doing, you will know."

He sighed and nodded. Mother was very likely right.

"This place that all the Young go, it's something called a school. The Young don't have a choice, they _have_ to go to this school in order to learn to control their power. They call it 'magic', and if they don't learn to control it, they can hurt each other and themselves, supposedly. I asked why that isn't taken care of in the nest by the parents, but not all pinkskins are smart enough to teach, even if they can control themselves. So they send the Young to the school to be taught by Parents who are good at teaching. It makes a strange kind of sense, but at the same time it feels _wrong_. If you can't teach your own Young, then your line should falter and die. That's the way of things."

"I agree with your assessment, Harry James Pottarrh Hidden Colours Duncan MacFusty. They war out of created differences, yet band together to improve the species when it is clear their lines should fail and die out. They are _strange_. Backward, even."

"Even worse, they need special sticks to help them use their power. The school's entire purpose is to teach them to wave their special sticks properly to accomplish things. That's only the ones that _have_ power, too. Only two in ten thousand actually have it."

"What do the rest of them do then if they don't go to school?"

"I don't know yet. It's on my list of questions to ask them. I wanted to ask you about Mates... Argonna and Darcy conflict me."

"How so?"

"Well, they have Mates... but I don't know if they're really Mates. The way they talk, it seems like they want to mate with several different males. They're always looking at males they haven't seen before, and I even heard them talking about having two males at once. I can also smell their arousal toward me sometimes. I thought maybe it was because they’re seventeen and nineteen and just don’t know who their real Mate is yet, but they act… sexual toward the males they already have now. I can't understand it."

"I am saddened to say I cannot understand that either, my Young. Svurtr mate for life, that is all I know. Perhaps you should ask them to explain it to you?"

He hung his head. That was the answer he didn't want.

"Alright, I will have to. I was hoping you knew. Talking to them is not easy."

"Perhaps the older female will be easier? Maisie?"

"That was what I had planned. Sometimes I think she fears I will not understand, so she only half-explains things. I ask more questions to find the truth, but it takes much time."

"It might save time if you used your Will to see her thoughts."

"I can do that?"

"You can also use your Will to prevent others from seeing your thoughts. We will practice that first. Sit, be calm, and I will teach you."

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Ah, fer fook's sake." Argonna deflated in the face of Harry's question.

"I need to knoo, Argie. Yer mum n da did their best, but they jus' couldnae tell it straight. I knoo it's pairsonal and private, but ye've groon up with yer own kaind. I'm missin' all the thoosand wee details that fill in the gaps. Help, please."

Argonna flushed dark pink while he talked, but nodded when he stopped. "Alrigh. Two thaings - keep in maind it's a gairl's pairspective an' woon be laike yer own. Saicond thaing, if ye AIVER, an' I mean AIVER tail a saingle, solitry waird aboot AINYTHIN' ye see ta AINYONE, I'll snip yer bollocks off. Clair?"

He nodded.

"Alright thain." She looked up at his eyes, and he did his very best to flit gently from thought to thought as they came up and vanished, and over the course of a few moments, he was able to piece together a more or less complete idea of Argonna's sexuality. What he saw shocked him to his core, but moreso because he felt like he connected with it somehow, and he didn't think he would ever be able to get the sight of what she did under the covers alone at night out of his head.

His body reacted the way they'd told him it would, and it quickly became painful, confined as he was in his jeans.

He broke eye contact immediately, and he could feel heat rushing to his cheeks. He looked up at the ceiling and tried to control his breathing. When he looked back at her, her eyes were locked on his bits.

"Tha's an educaition." He said. Her eyes jerked up to his face and her face turned red as well. He could feel his hearts thumping fast, and he breathed deeply to try to calm himself.

"Ye can say tha' again." She whispered as her eyes fluttered back to his lap briefly.

"Thaink ye, Argie. I thaink I understaind now."

"Whay me?" She asked. She bit her lip afterward, and her eyes begged him to be gentle. "Whay no Darcy?"

An image of her naked body flashed through his mind again and he shoved it away. "Ye're older. Mair coomfterble with yersailf. I thaink Darcy fancies me... even more than ye do. I though' she'd be more awkwaird."

"Well, tha's fair, I s'pose. Sorry if I do fancy ye a bit, Harry, I knoo ye're a might yoong yait. Ye make it quaite easy tho, ye're goin te be a beautiful man."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really? Ye think so?"

"Aye. Poot a wee scruff on yer jaw an' ye'll need ta beat gairls off ye wi' a cudgel."

He blew a breath out heavily. "Must be nice te be nineteen an' know all this crap."

She laughed. "Well, twailve isnae tha' bad. Lairinin' all this crap is half the fun."

He laughed and hugged her, and she wrapped her arms around him as well. "Thanks, Argie. Naiver a waird te anyone."

"Baitter no be! Snippy snip!" She let him go and made scissor motions with her fingers. He grinned back at her.

"I cairtainly woon maintion the hot sauce."

"DAID! Ye're a DAID BAI!" Agronna jumped to her feet and clutched after him, but he was halfway to the back door already.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore took the philosopher's stone from his desk and licked it. Generally he preferred the sweet tartness of lemon drops, but he was out of them. It had made an already wonderful day of being derided by the Board of Governors even better to come back and realize he'd eaten his last lemon drop on the way out. The cherry flavor of the rock was growing on him though. It was probably the only good thing to come from the previous year's class - the class that Harry Potter was _supposed_ to have shown up for. Where was he? Had he been enrolled at some other school? Had he been hiding in France? Germany? Italy?

He sighed. None of the feelers he'd put out through the ICW had borne any fruit at all. _Nobody_ knew where the boy was. Even his visit to Sirius in Azkaban had been useless. The Black brat had less than no clue where the boy was, and an irritating attitude on top of it. This past year had gone more smoothly, despite more students leaving for school abroad. Thankfully Molly's brood was far too poor to do such a thing. They were one part of the plan that was still in place. All he really needed was for Potter to show up, and he really needed it rather badly. Time grew short. He needed to have the time to assess the boy and try to reverse some of the damage. Guiding him to suicide would take time and careful planning. It was not something that could be accomplished quickly.

The floo flashed to green and Fudge's head appeared in the flames. "Albus!" Fudge stage-whispered, "Did you go visit Sirius Black?"

"Yes, Cornelius. Last week. Why do you ask?"

"He's escaped. He's bloody gone, Albus!"

"Surely you don't think that I -"

'No, of course not!"

"Then what is the problem?"

Fudge sighed. "The bloody problem is that you, Bagnold and Crouch put the bastard in prison without a trial! Scion of the bloody House of Black in prison with no trial! We have to find him and silence him, Albus! Immediately! The purebloods will have my head and yours on a plate otherwise!"

Albus fought the urge to close the grate and watch Fudge's head roll across his floor. Histrionic milquetoast.

"Yes, alright, what do you want from me?"

"I've stationed Dementors around the grounds of Hogwarts, he's headed there. I'm just letting you know. They're ordered to kiss Black on sight."

Albus felt another headache coming on.

"And you thought it was a _good_ idea to station how many Dementors with orders to kiss on sight around a _school_?"

"Ah... oh. There're a hundred or so."

"Make sure you have them in hand, Cornelius. I will point the blame directly at you."

"Yes, well... Good day, Albus." Fudge's head disappeared and the green flames died. it was no wonder Britain was the whipping boy of the magical world with idiots like him in charge.

To make his day ever so much sweeter, the train was delayed by forty-five minutes.. The train was _never_ delayed. He wandered down to the Front Hall when he realized it was late, and paced about while his instincts told him Fudge had probably murdered most of his students with his perfectly rational and well-advised placement of Dementors.

When the train did finally arrive, instead of an orderly procession into the castle, Poppy Pomfrey and the Heads of House all Apparated to Hogsmeade immediately. He sighed, and wandered back to his office as he thought of possible excuses to give and who was the most likely scapegoat.

Minerva walked into his office a half hour later.

"Trouble on the train?" He asked.

"Six students being treated for Dementor exposure and ten more transfers to Beauxbatons." At least the casualty list was low, and no-one died. Death was difficult to explain away.

"No reassurances worked?"

"I'd expect some very nasty letters if I were you."

"I see... Thank you for letting me know, Minerva."

She left again, and the feeling of being anxious with nothing to do returned.

'Fudged already', he thought bitterly. 'The makings of another stellar year'.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Harry finished dressing in his jeans and pullover and brushed his hair, then tied it back. He made sure it covered his now very-faded scar. Maise and Fergus had said anyone who saw it would be able to identify him, same as they had done, so he made sure to keep it covered. He dropped two steps at a time and took a seat on the sofa next to Maisie, who sat in her favorite chair at the far end of the sofa.

"Where we goon?" He asked. All day yesterday, Maise had steadfastly refused to say. All she'd told him was that it wasn't a shopping trip and they'd be going once a week for the next ten months.

"We're goon te see my fraind Lady MacMillan. I've agreed to tutor her yoongest fer saivral hours weekly, and she agreed te let ye coom along. Her bai is yer age, he's at Hogwairts fer three years so far. Ye're as caught up an' prepared as I can make ye, an' ye should hae noo trouble taisting into yer yeargroup. That's why when these ten moonths are gone I'll be raigisterin' ye te go next year. I'll raigister ye as Duncan MacFusty, an' that's te save yer peace an' quiet. All sorts o' dark an' evil bastards be wantin' te kill Harry Pottarrh."

"What? Evil people want te kill me? Why?!" His eyes went wide in surprise.

"When ye were jes' a wee bairn, a dairty bastard fancied 'imself Dark Lord show up at yer house an' killed yer Ma an' Da. 'E tried a murder ye as wail, but fer some reason ye jes' dinnae die. Instaid, Dark and Dairty did. It were 'is Killin' Cairse wha' give ye yer scar - leastwise tha's the tale. I werenae there, o' course. 'E 'ad a band o' evil murdery rapey gits, called ‘emsailves Daith Eaters. They're the ones want te hairt ye, on account ye kilt their head git."

"Oh. I guess I did woonder a bit wha 'appened te me fairst Ma an' Da. I think I knew it had te be bad, as I ended up a loong drive from noowhair. Makes me... angry, noo I know. No fit te ragin', but..."

She reached out and put her hand on his with a squeeze and a smile. "Ye've always got yer Mother, an' us too Harry. Nae matter whair ye goo nor who ye become. I knoo my gairls loov ye like a brother. Who knows, ye may even find some frainds te call yer new family."

"Add to, ye mean. Dinnae think I'll ever forget ye." He managed a small smile in return. "Me fairst Ma an' Da - it feels like unfinished baisiness. Like I should be prepairin' for war."

"Maybe ye should, son. We'll nae know til we hear the drums an' pipes. Until then, maybe ye can lairn some about yer family legacy. Who the Pottarrhs were and whair ye come from."

"I'd love te. How?"

"Well... it so happens Lady MacMillan has an extainsive library, and whain she learned ye wair studyin' up fer te go te Hogwairts, she offered te let ye come read while I'm tutorin'."

"Fer true?"

"Aye. Remaimber wha' I taught ye aboot fancy manners an' such, ye can practice tha' on the Lady when ye meet her."

His smile grew to spread across his face. "I will, Maisie. Thank ye."

She flashed the boy a grin in return. "Are ye raidy?"

He bounced to his feet. "Daifinitely!"

Maisie stood and held out her hand to him, so he put his hand in hers. He had the sensation of being squeezed through an impossibly small hole, and suddenly they were standing in front of a modest Manor House. It was three floors, the first was stone, the second dark brown wood, and the third white plaster with dark brown wood accents. He immediately identified it as Tudor style, thanks to Maisie's books on architecture.

There was a POP! sound just in front of them, and a small being appeared. It had large floppy ears, big, bright blue eyes, and very thin limbs with oversized hands and feet. He could tell just from looking at it that it had power draped around it like a cloak, but no power of its own. He found that very strange.

"Welcome Miss Maisie, and Mister Du -" Its eyes went wide as it turned to look at him and it stopped talking. Its mouth simply hung open as it gawped at him.

"Good Marning," He said to it with a bow, "I'm Duncan MacFusty, might I have the plaisure o' yer name?"

It blinked, then disappeared with a POP!

"Well, tha's a migh' odd." Maisie frowned.

A woman about Maisie's age came out of the house then and walked down the path to meet them. Maisie smiled and waved as she came.

The woman stepped right up to Maise and gave her a quick hug. "Welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for coming, Ainsley's being difficult - she's at that age, as you know - and Demetria just couldn't handle her, the poor old dear."

"Nonsainse, it's me plaisure o' course. We'll get yer gairl sairted. Lady MacMillan, it's my plaisure to aintroduce the newest maimber of the MacFustys, this is Duncan, he'll be attaindin' Hogwairts next Septaimber."

"A pleasure to meet you, young Duncan MacFusty. You are welcome to our home. " The Lady held out her hand toward him, and he cradled her hand gently in his and bowed low over it, but didn't actually kiss her knuckles, as that would be too familiar for a first meeting.

The way she pronounced her words was different from anything he'd heard before. Fergus and Maisie had said they were not a noble family, but Lady MacMillan _was_ a noble, so perhaps it was a class difference in speech? The Lady clearly wasn't offended by Maisie's non-noble speech, but then Maisie had said that they were already friends. None of Maisie's etiquette lessons had touched on speech or pronunciation, so rather than risk seeming overly familiar straight away, he decided to play it safe and use noble speech.

"A great pleasure to meet you, Lady MacMillan. You have my deepest thanks for your most generous welcome."

Lady Macmillan chuckled warmly and her eyes danced when he finished his greeting and released her hand. Maisie looked at him like he’d somehow grown a second head all at once.

"Oh I _like_ you, young man. Very well done. Please, come inside both of you." She smiled at them and led the way into the house.

Harry stopped just inside the doorway to marvel at the interior. The MacFusty residence was built solidly, and they had acquired some decorations they were proud of over time, but the MacMillan House was like entering a different world. The walls were faint pastel colours and decorated with frescoes, paintings, and carved bas reliefs. Several statue busts sat atop pedestals about the room, and the floor was some kind of delicate white stone inlaid with different coloured stone.

"Wow." He whispered.

"Thank you, Mister MacFusty. I am rather fond of the foyer, despite its intent being to impress."

"Ah, Duncan if you please, Great Lady."

She laughed again. "Great Lady! Oh he is a keeper, Maisie. My name is Moira, Duncan, and I'm not overly concerned with manners, even though yours are quite up to snuff. Brin!" She called out.

The little humanoid popped into existence next to her. "Brin is here Mistress." It said in a small voice.

"Please take Duncan to the library." She told it, then turned to him. "Brin will show you to the library, please make yourself at home and call for her if you need anything."

Harry bowed. "Thank you, Lady Moira."

She smiled and nodded back to him, then went up the staircase with Maisie. Maisie turned to look at him with an odd expression as she followed Lady MacMillan up the stairs. Brin hovered just out of his reach and wrung her hands while motioning for him to follow her, so he did.

The rest of the house was much the same as the foyer, but more warm and made of a greater percentage of wood. Brin led him through two hallways and opened a set of double doors for him, and it was his turn to gawp. Dozens and dozens of bookshelves lined the walls. Free-standing ones made three aisles in the middle of the room, and there were two sofas in the far corners as well as table and chairs.

"This is great!" He grinned at Brin. "Thanks! Is there a section on runes and enchanting?"

Brin nodded, then snapped her fingers. An entire bookcase on the wall to his left began to glow dimly.

"Brilliant! Can I ask you some questions, Brin? Would you mind?"

Brin hopped nervously from foot to foot. "The great Harry Pott- "

"Ah, Brin?" He interrupted her. "Please don't call me that. You can call me Duncan, or Hidden Colours if you prefer. I have learned only today that there are some bad people trying to find Harry Potter, so I would prefer it if nobody used that name."

She bobbed her head up and down as she nodded. "Brin understands, Great Duncan Sir. How may Brin be helping Great Duncan Sir?"

Harry chuckled. "Well I'm only thirteen Brin, so I don't know about all that Great Sir malarkey. I actually wanted to ask about you. I have never met anyone like you before. What do your people call yourselves?"

She perked up a bit then. "Brin is being a House Elf, Sir."

"It isn't rude of me to ask about you, is it? I'll stop if it is."

"Oh no, Great Duncan Sir! Brin is happy to answer! Nobody ever asks about Brin."

"Good, good. Okay, but if I ever do ask something rude, tell me please. I don't want to offend you. My next question is about your power. I can see you wrapped in it, but you don't have any of your own, and I don't understand."

"Great Duncan Sir doesn't want to offend Brin?!" Her eyes grew wide, then she sighed and nodded. "House Elves has no power of our own, that's true. If we doesn't bond to a family or witch or wizard, House Elves can does nothing, and we dies. We can live if we find a place with some natural magic, but not many of those left now."

"So you're bound to the MacMillans?"

Brin nodded. "Brin's parents too. They both died, killed by nastybad dark wizards."

"Death Eaters?"

Brin nodded.

"They're the ones who want to find me and kill me. Can I trust you to tell no-one about who I am?"

Brin nodded again. "Brin tells no-one, except Mistress if Mistress asks directly."

"Thank you Brin, that's fine. I wouldn't ask you to get in trouble. So you serve because you're bound to?"

"Oh no, Great Duncan Sir! House Elves serve The Code. The Bond gives House Elves life and power. The Code say payment bes due. House Elves serve because House Elves can only serve."

"So you serve because your station demands service? Like knights to a king?"

Brin cocked her head to the side as she considered that. "If bond to wizards be like knight oaths to king, then yes." She nodded.

"I see. What happens if you bond to a nastybad dark wizard?"

Brin's bottom lip stuck out and her eyes went glassy. "That bes the saddest thing ever, Great Duncan Sir. House Elves still bes bonded. Still serve, no matter how nastybad wizards be. Nastybad wizards better than deads."

"Hm. Isn't there a way for House Elves to move to a better family? Trade a bad bond for a good one?"

She shook her head. "No, Sir. Bond is bond. Only way to form bond is if no bond made. Only wizard or witch can break bond and free House Elves."

"What does the bad wizard have to do to free a bonded House Elf?"

"For freeing House Elves, wizards must present House Elf with clothes."

"Any kind of clothing, or does it have to be some special suit?"

"Any kind of clothing. A hat, a sock, a glove, anything."

"Oh. Okay... if I bond a House Elf years from now and I want my bonded to _wear_ clothes so they look good, how would I accomplish that if I can't give them the clothes I want them to wear?"

Brin scrunched her face up as she thought about it, then brightened as she thought of the answer. "House Elves be good at making, Great Duncan Sir. Just showing pictures of what House Elves should be wearing and asking House Elf to make and wear."

Harry grinned. "Fantastic, that's -"

Brin's eyes twitched upward and she vanished with a POP!

He guessed when Mistress called, Brin answered. He shrugged to himself, and pulled several of the enchanting books from the shelf and sat down to read.

  
  


* * *

  
  


He carried the slain deer over one shoulder as he climbed the spire to Mother's nest. He knew it had already bled all down him, he could feel it soak his jeans as he climbed. It didn't matter, he knew he could just clean himself later. Just like every other section, the Household section of Lady MacMillan's library had been a wealth of information and useful spells. He had particularly enjoyed the section on proper Gentlemanly etiquette. He hadn't looked forward to attending Hogwarts without knowing how pinkskins conducted themselves in polite company. Maisie had explained after they'd returned home about the differences between her speech and Lady MacMillan's, but even though it was only a regional difference, he opted to continue speaking like Lady MacMillan. It just _felt_ right.

Mother was still asleep when he entered the nest, so he was careful and quiet to avoid disturbing her. Unfortunately, that left him sitting against the far side of the nest while he waited for her to wake. He was excited to show her the gift he'd made her, and he wanted to gush about all the magic and manners he'd learned. Maisie said he was ready to join the other pinkskins his own age at Hogwarts, but before he could do so he would have to take some tests next month before his birthday. A couple of the books in Lady MacMillan's library had said that he was the last of the Potter line, and had showed part of his family tree. Thanks to that, he knew his first mother and father's names, and that was worth the reading just by itself.

He'd also read about the war with Voldemort and the atrocities that could be laid at his feet and those of his followers. He understood the will to conquer, but what they had done was not conquer or cull the weak. What they had done was run rampant, insane. Among the Svurtr, he'd have been cast out by Blocks-the-Moon and immediately torn apart by the entire Conclave.

That had led him to two things he could not understand about the pinkskins - could not understand and made him ashamed to be one. The first was that most of them were so filled with fear that they did not defend themselves. He had seen sheep and rabbits that froze before predators, but he had thought pinkskins were a predator species. The realization that they were only predators when prey was easy disgusted him. The second thing he'd discovered had disgusted him so much he nearly lost his stomach. He read that Voldemort's followers liked to rape. He'd had to ask Brin to show him the dictionary in order to look the word up.

He was sorry he had.

Even wolves - the only other predators he could think of that only hunted in packs - never did such horrifying things, let alone to each other. Pinkskins were disgusting things -or, at the very least they _could_ be. The book had tried to say without actually saying that Voldemort and his followers were mad, so he preferred to think that they _were_ mad and their behaviour did not apply to normal pinkskins. He hated to think his potential mate could be like that. The knowledge had left a residual tension inside him that he could not relax.

"Welcome home, Hidden Colours." Mother's voice roused him from his reverie and made him smile.

"Thank you Mother. I brought breakfast and a gift."

"You remain so kind, my Young. How are your studies?"

"I will be tested in fifteen or sixteen sunrises, but Maisie thinks I am ready and will have no difficulty. I hope she is right. She has been taking me to her friend's nest when she goes there, and her friend - Lady MacMillan - lets me read her collection of knowledge when we visit. I have learned so much it's amazing. Watch."

He held his hand out to the deer he'd brought her and whispered " _Wingardium Leviosa_ ", then " _Diffindo_ ". The deer floated into the air in front of her, then split down the middle and its innards fell onto the nest floor in front of her. He whispered " _Gemino_ " next, and the pile of innards doubled. He set the deer down toward the front of the nest where it was colder.

"It seems the pinkskins can do a great many things with their power." She said, her eyeridges raised.

"Definitely, and that's just the smallest part. They can also craft things to use power independently. I have been attempting such, and made you a gift." He fished Mother's gift out of his pocket and showed it to her. It was just a galleon, and Mother had thousands of them in her hoard.

"It looks like just another hoardpiece, doesn't it?"

"Yes, but I can feel the power in it."

He pointed out the runes he'd carved on it. "Just by gouging different symbols and touching them with my power, I made it so this hoardpiece will make your whole hoard warm, all the time. No more getting cold and waking up to breathe on it. No more snow."

He took the galleon and shoved it forearm-deep into Mother's hoard.

She waited a moment, her head cocked to one side, and then nuzzled him. "I can feel it working." She said. "I am thankful for your thoughtful gift, my Young."

"The pinkskins have so many ways to use their power, it almost makes up for their power being so weak. Some of them are so smart they come up with ways to compensate for being weak. it's really impressive."

"Admirable, indeed."

"Unfortunately, that's only some of the pinkskins. I also learned that most of them are just weak and frightened prey. That made me sad and kind of disgusted. They're also prone to disease and going mad. It made me very upset to be a pinkskin."

"What is it that upset you so?"

He sighed. "Even when they're not mad, they only sometimes have Mates. Most of them will mate with another pinkskin they find acceptable, even though they're not a good match. Worse, they can then just decide they no longer want to be mates and just go start mating with someone else. That's _normal_ for pinkskins."

"How revolting." Mother blew flame from her nostrils as though to clear a stench.

"Exactly!" He agreed, "Then when they _do_ go mad, they cast aside all mates, and go _forcibly_ mate with others _who already have mates_ , _just because they want to hurt them_."

Mother belched a nauseated green flame. "Oh that's disgusting."

"Yes, that was my feeling. I nearly lost my stomach when I read about that."

"There is no reason to think you will be like that, is there, Hidden Colours?"

"Well... no, I don't think so. I don't think I could ever act in such a way."

She nodded. "Nor I. That being so, resolve to destroy such mad ones. If pinkskins can be afflicted so, surely the affliction can be purged."

He brightened some at that. "I will do what I can, Mother. I am still learning how to fly in their Drive, but purging such an affliction is something I had not considered. I will give it more thought."

"Do so, my Young. You are bright and worthy, and you will make every last pinkskin notice you. Just do not forget to come visit your Mother when you can. I am proud of you."

"Thank you Mother. I will do my best to keep making you proud."

Harry nuzzled Mother for a moment, and left the nest feeling better than he had when he arrived.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Argie and Darcy held one of his hands each, while Fergus trooped ahead and Maisie walked behind them. He was the tallest of the five of them and had been since January of the previous year. He thought it was kind of ridiculous that the soon-to-be-fourteen-year-old, youngest of the bunch by nearly five years, was also the largest. It made him a little uncomfortable as well that Argie and Darcy holding his hands made him more comfortable.

He found the way the buildings were built unsettling, like a huge wall of shops and apartments that denied one access to the rest of the world. He found the whole place cramped, and the sheer number of other people wandering about Diagon made him anxious.

"Ye remaimber wha' te ask fer?" Maisie asked behind him.

"Aye." He answered.

"Well, jus' try an' relax an' be yersailf, lad. Goblins like a fair respaict, same as any."

They stopped outside a large white building that dominated one end of the alley. Goblins in armor, carrying sharp-looking weapons stood to either side of the propped-open double doors.

"I'll do my best, Maisie." He hugged Darcy and Argie and Maisie. His hands felt clammy.

"Dinnae goo doon thaire, tha's Knoctairn Alley. Stay up 'ere where it's bright. We'll noo leave ye, so wander aboot when yer doon an' we'll fine each other." Fergus pointed out Knockturn Alley, then shook his clammy hand.

Harry nodded back to him. "Aye, will do."

He squared his shoulders, and strode past Fergus, past the Goblin guards, and into the bank called Gringott's. The lobby was long and richly appointed, with two high counters, on either side of him, and a separate counter at the far end. Most of the Goblins behind the counters had customers waiting for them, so he joined the shortest queue and waited patiently.

When the lady in front of him had completed her transaction and left, the Goblin finally turned his eyes to Harry, so Harry bowed.

"Good afternoon, sir. If I may ask, how might I request a heredity test?"

The Goblin looked at him over top of its spectacles. "You just did. Follow Threadchoke to a testing room." He spoke to another Goblin standing nearby in a language he didn't understand, and the other Goblin - Threadchoke he presumed - led him down a hallway behind the counter.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Threadchoke sir." He said conversationally.

Threadchoke grunted and opened a door halfway down the hall, then shooed him inside and shut the door behind him.

The only things in the room were a desk and two chairs. One was a fancy chair behind the part of the desk all the drawers faced, so he sat in the other, nondescript chair. Another Goblin entered the room after a few minutes, so Harry stood and bowed to this one too.

"Good afternoon, sir." He said.

The Goblin stopped and looked at him. "Well. Just when you think." He mumbled, then seated himself in the fancy chair behind the desk and pulled a square of cloth out of the drawer, as well as a transparent crystal half-oval with a hole in the center. He placed the crystal on top of the cloth and set them in the center of the desk. "Are you one that knows your name and is hoping to get lucky, or one that doesn't know your name?" The Goblin peered at him intently.

Harry considered it before he answered. "I know my first name, but my second name is who I am, really. My third name is the one I'm using for now because I'm told my first name is being hunted by people who want to kill me. I want to prove I am who I think I am, and my third family tells me I have money here that belongs to me, though honestly I'm not sure what good it is."

The Goblin's lips pressed thin, and his ears straightened up. Harry hoped it was a smile.

"That is not an explanation I've heard before. Congratulations."

Harry did his best imitation of the Goblin's smile. It was difficult to control his ears.

"Just place your finger inside the crystal. The crystal will draw some blood and link to our genealogy matrix, then print the relevant history."

Harry nodded and put his finger in the hole in the crystal. "It might have some trouble getting through my skin." He said.

He sat with his finger in the crystal for a minute while the crystal turned different colours and then finally went black, and he could feel his blood being drawn.

"Hmph." The Goblin grunted. "Never seen that before either."

The crystal removed itself from his finger and began to shuttle itself around the piece of cloth, which expanded as it did so. Larger and larger the square of cloth grew as the information was printed. When the crystal finally stopped moving, it was ten minutes later and the cloth covered the desk, Harry's lap, and a good portion of the floor.

The Goblin took one look at the final name the crystal had printed, and growled like rocks grinding together - or he might have been swearing, for all Harry knew.

"Ragnok's golden eartufts!" He cried, and pushed a large red button on his side of the desk.

"What? What is it?" Harry asked.

"You're Harry Potter!" The Goblin told him.

"Yes, but I'd really like it if that stayed a secret so I don't get killed?"

"Have no fear, Mister Potter. Gringott's has the highest level of discretion. No-one will learn your identity from this institution."

"Alright, thank you. It's nice to know there are some people I can trust."

Another Goblin opened the door then. "Get Kneescythe in here immediately!" The Goblin behind the desk barked.

The new Goblin went away again.

"Kneescythe is your Accounts Manager, Mister Potter. He will have a great many things to discuss with you."

"Oh." Harry's hopes fell. "I don't... this is the first time I've ever been in a bank. I've never had money or used money, and I certainly don't understand money. Am I going to have to learn a lot of things in order to know what he's talking about?"

"For the love of Stone... Yes, Mister Potter, that is very likely. I'll inform Kneescythe when he arrives. He will likely take you back to his office for the discussion."

"Do you think he maybe has some books on money I could read over the next while?"

"That is a possibility, Mister Pot-"

The door opened and another Goblin immediately grated and grumbled at the one behind the desk. The one behind the desk grated and grumbled back, and Kneescythe's eyes widened and he turned to Harry.

"My apologies, Mister Potter. Please come this way, I'll show you to my office for our very long-overdue discussion."

Harry stood and bowed again to the Goblin behind the desk. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name, Mister...?"

"Ripjoint. A pleasure to meet you, Mister Potter."

"You too, Mister Ripjoint."

Harry followed Kneescythe down two more corridors before entering his office. It was not richly appointed, but it did have several pictures of other Goblins, framed certificates, and much more comfortable furniture. There was even a carved horn of some kind that had umbrellas in it.

Kneescythe sat in his chair behind his desk and began pulling file folders and ledgers from different drawers.

"I'd like to apologize in advance, Mister Kneescythe, I know this is going to be frustrating for you because I have no idea about money or even about being Harry Potter, really."

"Well then if you don't mind me asking, Mister Potter, where have you been? Who have you been? Have you never received a single owl we sent you?"

"Owl? You have owls as your representatives? I don't speak Owl." Harry frowned. _So strange_.

"Ah, no... Owls carry messages for us, Mister Potter. And parcels."

"Oh. No, I've never gotten any message or parcel from anyone ever."

"I see." Kneescythe pushed a button on his desk and gravelled something at a small black plate bolted to the corner of his desk. A short reply came from the plate, and he turned back to Harry. "It's possible someone has diverted your mail. We will look into it."

"Someone is stealing my mail?" He was surprised more than anything that such a thing was even possible, let alone that someone would actually stoop to _doing it_. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. What if someone had sent him letters? What if some of his family were trying to reach him the only way they could and someone had kept those letters, and now his family thought he didn't want anything to do with them?

"Rest assured, Mister Potter, we will get to the bottom of the problem and then rectify it with extreme diligence."

He liked the sound of that. Extreme diligence sounded angry and righteous and violent at the same time. "Alright, thank you. I'll trust you with it." He nodded to Kneescythe. He looked at Kneescythe looking at him, and remembered he'd asked more than one question. "As for where I've been... I was raised in the Hebrides by Swims-in-Stars of the Svurtr. I am Hidden Colours of the Svurtr. I have lived with Maisie and Fergus MacFusty for the last three... almost four years, while I learned to be a pinkskin - a human."

"I see. Why are you only here now if you have been a human for almost four years?"

"I am Declared. I speak, I breathe, I fly, I hunt. I have no need of money except as a hoard to sleep upon. Maisie is a registered tutor with something called the Ministry, and has tutored me in all the things I should know before I join my year at Hogwarts. I have only just learned I need to purchase things in order to go to Hogwarts."

"You fly?" Kneescythe's ears swivelled sideways.

"If you have no objections to me touching my power in your Territory, I could show you."

Kneescythe pulled a few objects from the drawers of his desk and set them on the desk. "Please," He said as he put his elbows on the desk and leaned forward, "Go ahead."

Harry nodded and touched his power, now ever at his talontips - fingertips, he corrected himself - and wrapped himself in it. He rose gently and gracefully into the air while Kneescythe's ears nearly flattened to his skull. The small metal things Kneescythe had placed on his desk immediately melted into tiny puddles of slag, starting with the one on Harry's right and proceeding down the line of them in the order Kneescythe had placed them. Harry returned to sitting in the chair and released his hold on his power. "I did not have wings as a child, so Mother taught me to fly using only my power."

"Meaning you have wings now?" Kneescythe's voice was tremulous and small.

He felt heat blossom in his ears and cheeks. "I can change... when I need to." He was not anxious to admit to destroying part of the MacFusty residence by accident, even if they had fixed it good as new.

"You are... a most unusual Wizard, Mister Potter." He completely ignored the cooling bits of molten metal on his desk. Kneescythe took a deep breath then and let it out. "Right, to business. My apologies if I offered offense with my questions, Mister Potter."

Harry shook his head. "No, not at all. Like I said to Mister Ripjoint, it's nice to be able to trust someone. He assured me none of what I say and none of what you know will ever reach beyond Gringott's."

"He was absolutely correct. You are one of our most important clients, Mister Potter, and discretion is guaranteed. Now, are you familiar with the concept of money?"

"Yes, it was explained as barter by token, wherein the token has an agreed-upon, specified value."

Kneescythe pressed his lips flat and lifted his ears. "Good! Yes, perfectly correct. The standard for Magical Britain is the Galleon. Seventeen Sickles to the Galleon, twenty-nine Knuts to the Sickle."

"Four hundred ninety-three Knuts makes a Galleon. Got that part."

"Well there's not much more to it, Mister Potter. Where are you having difficulty?"

"I know money buys things. I know the basics of currency. What I don't know is how much - if any - that I have, and I don't know how much things cost. Will I be able to afford to go to Hogwarts?"

Pressed lips and lifted ears again. "Yes, Mister Potter, you will be able to go to Hogwarts." He clicked his fingers together, and a book appeared on his desk in front of him. He opened it and turned it around to face Harry. "Here, the first column details debits from your vault - money taken out for interest fees, purchases you have made, all that kind of thing."

Harry nodded.

"The second column details deposits to your vault - money added from interest payments, income from investments, or payments from people who owe you money. Still follow?"

He nodded again. "Yes."

"Good, now the balance available at the bottom is the total of the starting balance for the month - what was left in the vault at the end of last month - minus any debits, plus any deposits. The available balance is there at the bottom of the page."

It was easy to see once Kneescythe had pointed it out, and the Arithmancy of it made a great deal of sense.

"Is twenty thousand a lot?" He asked his Account Manager.

More pressed lips, lifted ears. "Your tuition to Hogwarts has been paid since before your birth, Mister Potter, so you don't have to worry about the cost of being allowed to go. Your school books, wand, robes, and other sundry costs associated with attending Hogwarts usually amounts to less than a hundred galleons. Furthermore, this vault is your Trust vault, which is refilled every year on your birthday from your main Ancestral vaults - of which there are three. So to answer your question, twenty thousand is plenty, as long as you don't spend it foolishly. It does have to last you all year."

Everything he’d need for his year at school would cost a _hundred_ ? Yeah, twenty thousand was a lot. "Wow. Okay... What's the difference between a Trust vault and the other ones?"

"Sometimes young people make very poor decisions regarding money. By only giving you access to a certain amount, your parents prevented you from spending foolishly with the entire family's resources. Your Ancestral vaults fall under your control when you come of age, or take up the Lord's mantle, whichever comes first."

"What's a Lord's mantle?" Harry frowned.

"Your family is a Most Ancient and Most Noble House, Mister Potter. You have hereditary seats on the Wizengamot, and when you reach your age of majority, you will be entitled to put on the Lord's ring and vote on law and policy in the Wizengamot. To take your place as a Lord of magical Britain. The mantle of Lord is the responsibilities and privileges that accompany being a Lord."

"Wow. That's..." Harry slumped in his chair at the thought of such a depressing future.

"A lot to take in, I understand.” Kneescythe nodded. “Thankfully, you have a number of years yet before you're required to become a Lord. Any questions or concerns you have I will be happy to address with you, and hopefully we can ease you into it."

"Thank you, Kneescythe. I appreciate that. I look forward to working with you."

"And I you, Mister Potter. To address your immediate needs, the first thing we should do is make you a new key. Since you have never had possession of your previous key, it would be wise to invalidate it rather than risk someone accessing your vault in your name."

"Yes, please. I don't like the idea that someone else has my key."

Kneescythe nodded and pulled two halves of a mold out of his desk, both made of the same transparent crystal he'd seen in Ripjoint's office. He placed the bottom half on the desk in front of Harry.

"Insert your finger, if you would Mister Potter."

Harry did so, and Kneescythe put the top half of the mold overtop and pressed down until the two halves of the mold met. There was a _click_ sound, and they stuck together. Kneescythe let go and relaxed in his chair while the crystal started its journey through the rainbow just like Ripjoint's had. As before, when the crystal turned black, he felt it drawing blood. He wasn't sure exactly _how_ it did that, since Ripjoint's hadn't left any kind of mark behind. When the sucking sensation of his blood being taken ended, the mold cycled through silver, then gold, and finally ended up a bright silver-white colour that was metallic and very shiny.

Another _click_ sounded, and the mold halves separated. Kneescythe took the key from inside - the same bright white shiny metal the mold had been - and handed it to Harry.

"It is the only one, Mister Potter, make sure it stays safe. Now, one more short item of business." He pulled a carved oak box the size of a loaf of bread out of the bottom drawer of his desk and put it on the desk in front of Harry. It had a beautifully carved, ornate crest on the lid. "Go ahead and open it, Mister Potter. It belongs to you, after all."

Harry reached out and lifted the lid of the box. Three rings sat in a row in the box, a large, thick, square one on the far left, a smaller, more delicate version of that one next to it, and then a small, thick oval version on the right. All of them were gold with a single huge ruby, and the same crest embossed upon the face of the ruby in gold.

"Wow, these are beautiful. You said these belong to me?"

"The one on your right does, for now. The one on the left is the Lord's Ring, next to that The Lady's ring. The oval one is the Heir's Ring. Since you are the Heir, you can put that one on now."

Harry took the oval ring and picked it up out of the box, as passages from several of Lady MacMillan's proper etiquette books flashed through his mind. "Is there a specific finger it goes on?"

Kneescythe shook his head. "Your father wore that one on the smallest finger of his right hand. His father wore it on the first finger of his left hand."

Harry slipped the ring on the last finger of his left hand. It seemed like it would be as out of the way as possible there. The ring grew warm, and shrunk to fit his finger perfectly. Then the metal of the band turned a deep, lustrous black and became textured with tiny interlocking plates. The Ruby changed color to a deep, vibrant green, and the gold crest on top stayed gold.

"Wow, I like that even more!" Harry exclaimed, "That's beautiful!"

Then the ring disappeared.

"Where did it go?" He asked, wide-eyed. He hoped Kneescythe didn't think he'd broken it.

Kneescythe pressed his lips and lifted his ears. "Relax, Heir Potter. It's a security feature. The ring's default state is invisible while it is worn. It will become visible when you will it to do so."

"Oh. That's great!" Harry concentrated on making the ring visible, and it appeared on his finger. He stopped, and it disappeared. He smiled back at Kneescythe, careful to not show his teeth.

"We shall visit your trust vault now, and you can withdraw however much you think you'll need for your school term. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Hogwarts recesses over Christmas. Why don't we make an appointment to meet and go over whatever has arisen between now and then?" Kneescythe said.

"That sounds like a great idea, thanks."

"After we find out what's happening with your mail, I'll send you a message to suggest a time and date."

"Thank you, Manager Kneescythe. I have to admit I was very nervous when I arrived here at Gringott's, but everyone has been very nice and very helpful, and I appreciate that very much."

"I am gratified that our service has been acceptable, Heir Potter. If you'll follow me, we'll head down to your Trust vault."

Harry quite enjoyed the cart ride down to the vault, though he did think it would be so much faster and easier to simply fly. Kneescythe held out his hand to Harry when they arrived at his Trust vault, and after a second he realized he wanted the key. He handed it over, then Kneescythe inserted it and opened his vault. He handed the key back to him.

"That's the only key to your vault, Heir Potter, please don't lose it."

"I'll do my best." The sight of the huge hoard of galleons in his vault made him want to crawl on top of it and have a nap.

It was even bigger than Mother's hoard. He supposed Mother could buy quite a bit if she ever chose to... but then what would she sleep on?

Harry moved to take some of the galleons, and stopped. There was no way a thousand would fit in his jeans pockets.

"Ahem." Kneescythe cleared his throat and held out a small bag to him. "Bottomless and featherlight, Heir Potter. Compliments of Gringott's."

"Umm... thanks. What's bottomless and featherlight mean?"

"The bag has been enchanted with internal expansion charms to hold a very great deal more than it's exterior would indicate, and further charmed to weigh no more than it does when empty, no matter how much is in it."

"Oh. That's brilliant!" Harry grinned. "I only just recently found out such things were possible, I can't wait to learn how it's done. Thanks so much!"

Pressed lips and lifted ears. "Our pleasure, Heir Potter."

Harry threw a thousand galleons into the pouch and grinned the whole way back to the lobby as he swung the little pouch around. When they got out of the cart, Harry stuffed the pouch into his pocket and shook Kneescythe's hand. "Thank you again, Manager Kneescythe. You've been great, just great. I look forward to your message and visiting over Christmas."

"Thank you, Heir Potter, I look forward to our business future together." Kneescythe bowed slightly, and Harry returned it, though perhaps deeper than it needed to be. Kneescythe returned to his office, and Harry exited the bank into Diagon proper.

The MacFustys were browsing books in Flourish and Blott's when he caught up to them.

"Soo, hoo'd it goo?" Darcy asked.

"It was great!" Harry smiled. "Everyone was very nice, and very helpful. I have an awful lot to learn, but my Account Manager Kneescythe is going to help me learn it all properly. I'll have an appointment with him come Christmas. Apparently someone is intercepting my mail too, since I've never gotten anything from them before, and they're going to see about fixing that."

"Who would steal yer mail?" Argie frowned.

"Well, seein' e's' oo 'e is, I'd wager whoaiver it is dinnae mean good."

"Aye, an' tha's enoof on tha' topic." Fergus shut the conversation down. "Let's 'ave yer list thain, we'll break it oop an' gaither yer bukes right quick."

Harry went still and looked each of them in the eye. "I... thank you. All of you. Without you I'd probably be trying to build a nest out of rocks somewhere out of the wind."

Darcy giggled. "Nonsainse. Ye're a good bai Dunc, an' we're just as chuffed t'ave ye as ye're te be 'ad."

"Me darlin' daughter's three drams in quite like, but she's nae wrong. Nae matter wha' else 'appens, ye've a place wi' us, Duncan." Fergus squeezed his shoulder as Darcy slapped Fergus's.

Harry smiled his thanks and pulled out his list of required items. Maisie took it from his hands and handed out hunting targets like a general. It took less than two minutes before all his required books were assembled at the counter. As he had plenty of money, he also snuck in a few extra runes books and some intermediate enchanting. Then he saw books on healing, charms, wandlore, and he just had to clench his hands and walk away or he'd end up buying far too much. He already knew that Hogwarts had the largest library in Britain, so he told himself repeatedly he could spend every moment there learning. He didn't need to buy the books.

His fingers still itched to get more books when they left the bookshop, but he managed to keep it under control. He forgot all about it when they entered Madam Malkin's to get his robes. Argonna and Darcy seemed bent of making him model every piece of clothing, including his boxers, but Maisie nixed that. She and Fergus had taught him what was appropriate and inappropriate in mixed company so he understood, but when it came to being naturally embarrassed by nudity, he simply wasn't. He hadn't worn a stitch until four years ago.

He knew the girls were playing with him and trying to get him to blush, but he found it endearing more than anything. It made him feel warm inside to know they were playing a game that simply wouldn't work outside the players involved. He hoped they never stopped, even when he brought his Mate home to meet them. Whoever she may be.

The rest of the family had visited Mister Ollivander before and were not particularly taken aback by the man, but Harry found him to be less than forthcoming. He had a puttering, patient, understated way about him that was somewhat mollifying, but Harry could see his eyes were calculating, sizing him up, searching his brain for who he might be.

"Willow, twelve inches, Unicorn tail hair. On the whippy side." He stated as he presented a wand to Harry. Harry gripped it, and he could feel the wand tug at his power as it attempted to focus it and provide an outlet. It seemed... weak.

"Give it a swoosh, Mister MacFusty." Ollivander suggested. Harry waved the wand, but nothing at all happened. Was it supposed to?

"Hm." Ollivander frowned. More calculations. He pulled another box and presented him another wand. "Holly, eleven and a half inches, Phoenix tail feather. Supple."

Harry swooshed that one too, and it felt... weak.

"No... I thought for sure." Ollivander frowned. "Are you using any of your magic?" He asked.

"Was I supposed to?" Harry asked in return.

"It shouldn't matter, but give it a try just in case."

Harry channeled a little bit of power through the wand as he whispered " _Lumos_ ", and the wand burst into blue-white flame and disintegrated instantly.

"Hm. Apparently not." Ollivander said with raised eyebrows.

"Er, sorry." Harry apologized. "I'll pay of course..."

"No no, think nothing of it, Mister MacFusty. Let's try something else."

Maisie and Fergus shared a look while Darcy and Argonna stared at the dusting of ash on the floor that had been a wand.

Ollivander puttered around in the far back of his shop and brought forth another wand, this one black with a carved grip. "Ebony, twelve and a half inches, dragon heart string, firm." He said as he presented it.

"What _kind_ of dragon?" Harry asked him sharply as he glared into the man's eyes.

"Ah, Norwegian Ridgeback, if I recall. As well, I assure you Mister MacFusty, all dragon heart strings in my shop are harvested from dragons who have died of natural causes."

The man thought Harry was upset because of a dead dragon. If a wizard could kill a dragon, then he deserved to win. That was the way of things. Harry simply gave the wand back to Mister Ollivander.

"Ridgebacks are not very intelligent. Do you have anything with Black heartstring?"

Ollivander looked at him for a moment. More calculations.

"I believe I do." He went into the back of the shop again. He returned with another box, this one rather dusty. He took the wand out of the box and held it out to Harry, handle first. "Yew, ten inches, Black dragon heartstring, pliable."

Harry gripped the carved, off-white handle, and felt a surge of recognition from the wand. He poured the tiniest trickle of power into the wand, and felt agreement through the power. " _Lumos_." He said, and the tip of the wand lit up enough to make the deepest corners in the back of the shop visible. Using the wand gave him a strange sense of echo in his power, but the wand was a requirement for school, so he resolved to just deal with it. " _Nox._ "

"Ah. Excellent." Mister Ollivander smiled.

"Thank you Mister Ollivander." Harry said.

"My pleasure, Mister MacFusty. That'll be seven galleons."

Harry smiled and paid the man, and tried to pay for the one he'd destroyed, but Mister Ollivander wouldn't hear of it. "Part of the wandmaker's business." He said, and flatly refused Harry's additional galleons.

All in all it was a pleasant day spent in Diagon Alley - finished with ice cream, of course. The best part of the whole day in Harry's opinion was his new trunk. When the sales lady showed him trunks with multiple compartments and shrinking and enlarging runes on them, he giggled with glee and bought one that could shrink enough to fit in his front pocket and had four separate compartments. It was like having an entire nest in your pocket! He put all his purchases for the day inside it before they left the trunk shop, then shrank it and put it in his pocket.

Harry grinned the entire way home.


	3. Chapter 3

  
  


She hated Welcome Feasts.

She hated Leaving feasts too, but since it was the first day of school, that one was a long way off. In fact, she hated every mandatory feast. Like she had nothing better to do than sit there and be ridiculed by the fucking morons. She sat at the very far end of the table, alone as always, and waited for the Headbastard to finish his stupid speech so she could shovel some food in herself and leave. As if Dementors on the bloody train weren't bad enough, now she had to sit there and watch Weasley eat.

Okay, so she never bothered to look at the other end of the table, so she didn't _really_ have to watch Weasley eat, but knowing that disgusting shitbag was at the table was bad enough. She'd seen him eat in first year and he hadn't improved.

She risked a glance up the table. Weasley still acted like he was the center of attention, like the number one bully in the schoolyard. She wondered if Seamus and Dean ever got sick of pretending like Weasley didn't irritate the shit out of them. She imagined they got sick of doing his homework for him, and the expressions on their faces didn't say good things about their relationship.

She knew Weasley wasn't really to blame for her limp or the fact that her knee ached when it was cold, but he had been all of the reason she'd been in that fucking bathroom in the first place. No it wasn't his fault a fucking mountain troll turned up and used her as batting practice, but the fact did very little to cool her hatred of the shit-mouthed ginger.

The Headbastard finally shut his lying cakehole and the food appeared. She chose chicken for the lean protein, along with broccoli and green beans. She would have liked some long-grain rice and fish, but of course that was not part of the diet in magical Britain. Little wonder ninety percent of the adults were pasty pudgebags. It didn't matter, the elves would fix her something healthy whenever she asked after first day.

She kept her head down and ate quickly. She did not risk another look up the table because the food was out and it would be a horrorshow no matter what. She kind of felt sorry for Neville, as he was sort of the whipping boy for the house, but at the same time he didn't do anything about it, so he brought it on himself.

When she finished her meal, she took her wand from her pocket.

" _Nullus. Mixtionis Perfectus. Nonsonus._ ” She cast in quick succession, then rose from the table and left the Great Hall. She had to get to the tower and move all her things before the rest of the girls got at them. She didn't bother to try to be sneaky, that was what magic was for. Her combination of no-sound, no-scent and disillusionment had let her walk straight past Missus Norris before without the cat being any the wiser, so she knew it was good enough for just about anyone else in the castle.

She cancelled her _Nonsonus_ in order to whisper the password to Madam Crassulent - whom everyone called the Fat Lady because why should they have any respect for the one who guards them at all? When she obligingly swung the door open, she re-cast the _Nonsonus_ and walked to her dorm.

She'd had to put up with Lavender and Parvati and even a couple of the older girls during first year, before she'd found her hideyhole. Beginning of the first year they'd not even bothered to couch it in positive terms like Amanda Spinner and Tiffany Hutchins had at primary school. At least they'd had the class to make it seem like they were trying to help Hermione look her best while they made fun of her behind her back. Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Eloise Midgen, Romilda Vane, and Faye Dunbar - none of them had even bothered to try. They simply saw a girl who was different and pounced on her. They used her as the scapegoat to prove they were alike and avoid getting bullied themselves. She had brought them all together as a group, and the price had been her own comfort and dignity.

Second year they had already been a group and had started with the bully games. They hid her clothes, her shoes, her hairbrush. She kept a few small bars of chocolate to comfort herself with, but those had gone too. Halfway through second year she'd discovered her hideyhole while on a solitary tour of the castle, but most of her things had already gone by that point. A girl named Luna from Ravenclaw had actually brought some of her things back to her toward the end of the year. Hermione had been grateful until she saw the girl's eyes. They had been filled with sympathy, and that was fine, but they were also filled with pity, and that had pissed her off. She didn't need anyone's pity.

She picked up her trunk from next to her bed - the bed she'd been assigned - and shrunk it to the size of a purse. She tucked it under her arm and left the dorm, and with any luck it would be the only time she ever set foot in there this year. Her hideyhole was far superior in that only she was in it, and even if that weren't the case she would still prefer it, as it had access to both the study area and the restricted section of the library. Her hideyhole was bloody _perfect_ as far as she was concerned.

She paused in front of the door to the fourth floor study area.

" _Homenum Revelio_." She whispered. The spell confirmed there was no-one near who could see the door open and close, so she opened the door and closed it behind her, then locked it.

The study area was like a mini-library unto itself, though she'd already been through its contents and most of the books weren't very interesting or relevant. She thought that at some point it must have been a secondary library for first-years because that's who the books were geared toward.

She stepped in front of the fourth bookcase along the left wall.

"Othello." She whispered, and the bookcase swung silently open. There was a stone archway and corridor beyond. She stepped into the corridor and closed the bookcase door behind her. She pressed the tip of her wand against the solid wood. "New password Oberon." She told it. The tingle in her wand hand told her the password had changed.

The far end of the long and twisting corridor was mostly a solid stone wall. Between five and seven feet up was a two-foot square piece of wood that was actually a painting on the other side, and it swung open. Beneath it was one of the short bookcases in the restricted section.

Halfway down the stone corridor between the study room and the restricted section, part of the wall had caved in. When she had found it, it had been just a terrifying black void beyond a jumble of fallen stone blocks. She'd cast _Lumos_ and revealed an extremely old workshop. It held three worktables, all suffering from extreme old age. The wood table legs had rotted and splintered, and two of them had fallen over and spilled their contents on the floor. Bits of rusted metal that she guessed had once been tools of some kind had lain strewn about the fallen tables.

Shelves had lined the room to a height of six feet, but not only was anything that had been on the shelves just worthless mush - the shelves themselves had rotted and were little better. A few of them had collapsed and dumped their mush onto the floor. To top it all off, the whole room had been covered in inches' worth of dust.

Anyone else would have noted the room and moved on, but she wasn't anyone else. She was Hermione Jean Granger, thank you very much. She cleaned the place out, vanished all the useless detritus, and after a few days of sleeping on the floor while she studied books from the restricted section, she'd managed to conjure herself a bed. She added new bookshelves a few days later, followed by rugs, dressers, a washbasin, mirror, three _lovely_ stained-glass torchieres, and a large, plush loveseat _perfect_ for reading in.

To someone who didn't know it was there, it was just another stretch of stone block wall. To Hermione, it was like the doorway to peace, quiet, and freedom. She tapped her wand on one specific stone block, and a section of the wall seven feet high and four feet wide swung silently inward. She tapped it again once she was inside, and it swung closed just as silently.

" _Lumos Omnia_." She said, and all three floor lamps lit her space with a warm, cozy light. She took a deep breath and let it out again, then took out her trunk and started to unpack. She realized as she was putting away her clothes that she wore a smile. It was a small smile, but it was there nonetheless. She was safe, she was alone, in _her_ space. It was a welcome thing after she’d had to put up with dinners with her parents. She supposed she loved them, it wasn't like she wanted anything bad to happen to them, after all. They just... they had never been very interested in her life at all. They were more like accomodating landlords, and she an occasional tenant. She didn’t know them, nor they her. She felt alone when she was with them, and that was alright. It was a damn sight better than the staring, accusing, invasive eyes in the Great Hall.

She sighed and finished unpacking while she thought about the days and months to come. School would be just brilliant if she were the only one there.

She shoved her closed trunk under the bed to keep it out of the way, and placed Michael's picture on the nightstand where it belonged, where she could see his wavy black hair, deep blue eyes and soft red lips.

"I'll have to see if Colin has another one of you I can buy this year." She told him. "If only things were different, we could live here together."

She changed into her nightwear and slid into bed, then picked up the photo to stare at it for a long moment. The keen ache in her chest made her eyes sting, but she refused to give in to tears anymore. Tears hadn't ever summoned an adult who cared, nor had they provided any kind of defense against a rampaging troll. Tears were useless, just like the adults.

She pressed a long, soft kiss to those ruby red lips, then placed his picture back on the nightstand.

"Nox Omnia." She said, and the lights went out.

Tomorrow was the start of a long, annoying year.

  
  


* * *

  
  


October thirty-first. It wasn't bad enough that all the students were in high spirits and high in general from consuming prodigious amounts of sugar, but no, they had to have potions as their last class before she could get away back to her hideyhole and her books.

She hated Potions class.

She loved potions themselves - loved the incredible variety of effects you could get from a few simple ingredients coupled with precise manipulation, but the fact Snape was there sucked every joy out of the experience. He had learned early on not to call on her in class because she _always_ knew the answer, so for the most part he left her alone. That didn't mean she could enjoy the class. If it wasn't Weasley or one of the Slytherins trying to deliberately mess with her potion, it would be Snape's disgusting stare. The whole school knew what he thought of muggleborns, and he never once bothered to use that word, he used the other one. There were a few students in class who had to deal with his disdain, but as the Official Outcast, it was usually her. She didn't like his eyes on her, either. She could feel his greasy gaze like a coating of oil on her skin. It was never enough to throw her off her brewing of course, but she always went to have a shower afterward.

She finished her potion and filled the standard three vials of it - one for Snape to grade, one to keep in case he gave her a shitty mark on it, and one to keep in her toolkit in case it was needed for something. She wrote her name, the name of the potion, and the date on each of the vials. She shouldered her backpack, and made sure she had everything and that her workstation was clean.

" _Nullus. Mixtionis Perfectus. Nonsonus._ " She whispered. She left the vial for him to grade on his desk, and to everyone else it simply appeared there as though it had Apparated there on its own.

She cast _Silencio_ on the door so it wouldn't make any noise, and abandoned the classroom. She knew that the rest of her house would be in that classroom for another twenty minutes at least, so she ran flat out to the tower. She had to cancel the _Nonsonus_ to get past the portrait door, but there wasn't anyone in the common room anyway. She showered, dried, and dressed quickly, then reapplied her three spells and opened the portrait door only to find a gleefully grinning, semi-naked man waiting to get in. He dashed through the door, and unable to see, hear, or smell her, he crashed immediately into her and sent her tumbling to her behind.

"What was that?!" His eyes darted around as he scanned the area, and he sniffed the air. Hermione groaned and pulled out her wand to curse the shabby hobo, only to catch a glimpse of him as he darted into the boys' dorms.

She contemplated simply leaving the man to whatever disgusting thing he was up to - hopefully lying in wait to molest Weasley - but sighed when she realized she couldn't. She had let him into the dorm, and that made the situation her responsibility, as irritating as that was.

A faint "HEE HEE!" drifted down from the boys' dorm, and seconds later the hobo ran down the stairs into the common room again, holding Weasley's rat.

"I found you, I found you!" He said ecstatically as he practically danced in place. "Oh Peter you naughty little animagus, I'm going to have such fun with you! You're going to pay for what you've done! Finally! HEE HEE!"

He started to run for the portrait door, but he only got three steps.

" _Petrificus totalus_." She hit him square in the chest, and he fell flat on his face. The rat kept moving and skidded on its little face before it twisted, rolled, and got to its feet. It looked around for a second, then tried to skitter back to the dorms. She couldn't count how many steps it got, as its feet were too small. " _Petrificus totalus_."

She hefted her bookbag so that it sat on both shoulders and left her hands free, then picked up the rat by its tail with her left, and waved her wand at the hobo with her right. " _Mobilicorpus_." The hobo floated along behind her as she went to the portrait door. She didn't have much time before the others returned. She made sure the way was clear before she left the common room, and ran as quickly as she could with her bookbag and fat rat burdens.

She entered the disused classroom near the Armoury on the fourth floor, and dropped the hobo to the floor, then tossed the rat next to him. She quickly locked and sealed the door. " _Oblinito_."

She cancelled her _Nonsonus_ and spoke to the hobo. "I'm going to release you now," She told him, "I want you to sit in one of these desks and start explaining what you were doing in the Gryffindor dorms. If you do anything except sit at a desk and explain, I'll stun you and let the Aurors sort you out. _Finite_."

The hobo sat up slowly and rubbed his face. "Getting into a desk now, take it easy, no need for Aurors." He pushed up from the floor and smoothly slid into one of the desks.

" _Petrificus Totalus. Stupefy_." Hermione hit the rat again just in case, and because it would help him keep in mind the fact that he was at her mercy. After getting a good look at him, she recognized him as Sirius Black, from the front page of the _Daily Prophet_. Really, there wasn't anyone else it _could_ be, the man _looked_ like an escaped convict, for Merlin's sake. "Get to the story." She demanded, in as authoritative a tone as she could manage.

"Yes yes! Alright, no need for unpleasantness." He held up both hands to placate her. "The rat isn't really a rat. He's an animagus. I was hunting him for giving my friends to Voldemort."

"To what end? Are you going to kill him?"

"Yes."

"That's not very smart."

He sighed. "No, I suppose not. I've a history of rather rash decisions, you know."

"Yes, well, I suppose rash decisions are one of the quickest paths to prison. Now stop insulting my intelligence and tell the whole story from the beginning, and not some half-arsed vague pseudotale."

Sirius smiled a little. "Alright. It's long and hateful, but I suppose I don't have a choice."

"You don't. _Adhaerentia_." She used the sticking charm to glue him to the seat, just in case he got any ideas.

"Well..." He looked down at the desk. "If we're going to be here a while, might I trouble you for a bit of food?"

"You insulted my intelligence once already. Don't insult my patience as well. Story first, I'll decide _if_ you eat afterward."

He sighed again. "Alright... You're too young to remember the first war, but let me tell you Voldemort and his lickspittles had the populace in a tizzy. Whole ancestral lines up and moved to the continent. People didn't go out at night. Any hint of a black robe or pointy hat and everyone panicked and fled. If he'd lived another month or so the Ministry might have just opened the doors and let him in. He already had half the Ministry workforce under his banner in any case. They used to _Imperius_ random people and make them go home after work and murder their own families.

"We tried to fight the best we could, but it was down to just a few groups of holdouts. James and Lily - my best friends, my real family - Dumbledore convinced them to go into hiding to raise their son. He cast an obscure charm over their house called the Fidelius Charm, designed to take the very existence of a thing and make it a secret from the entire world, save one person. That person was the Secret Keeper, and they could reveal the secret to others."

"That's pretty impressive."

"I thought so as well. James and Lily, they wanted me to be the Secret Keeper, but I was well known as being their friend. Should anyone want to find them, all they had to do was look for me. So I suggested our less public friend Peter Pettigrew, I thought James and Lily would be safer that way, and I could play a prank on Voldemort into the bargain. It seemed like the perfect solution.

"Peter already had his lips glued to Voldemort's arse and none of us knew. He took the secret straight to the evil bastard and invited him in for a spot of murder. He killed James and Lily." Sirius's eyes went glassy and his lips twisted as he tried to stop from crying. He stopped the story and took several deep breaths before he continued.

"I don't know what happened, but when the wards around their place told me there were intruders, I got there as quickly as I could. James and Lily were already dead, but so was Voldemort. Half the house had been blown apart, but somehow, against all reason, little Harry survived. Hagrid was already there when I arrived. He held little Harry in one arm like a mouse in a teacozy. Harry held his hands out to me and called me Pafuh- my nickname was Padfoot, and he couldn't quite pronounce it, you see. He was only fifteen months old.” Black's eyes went distant as he relived the memory, and his mouth turned up in an adoring smile that lasted but a second before it vanished.

"I made a stupid, _stupid_ , rash decision to satisfy my need for vengeance, and I went in search of Peter. That little bastard rat right there. I caught him near Charing Cross road, but he had no qualms about killing muggles, unlike me. I didn't think he had it in him to blow up a gas main just to get away. I was horrified at what he'd done, stunned by the casual murder of a dozen or so innocent people. He used the opportunity to hit me with an overpowered cheering charm. He made me _laugh_ while surrounded in dead bodies."

"That's disgusting." She said as she fought to keep her gorge down.

"Yes. That's what the Aurors thought. I was on my knees as I laughed helplessly, and the next thing I knew I woke up in Azkaban. Little Peter had made good his escape, of course."

"The papers say you blew Pettigrew up. All they ever found of him was a finger."

Mister Black barked a single ice cube of laughter. "Examine the rat. Missing a toe, isn't it?"

She levitated the rat to look, and it was in fact missing a toe. So if the rat was in fact Peter Pettigrew... " _Facti Sunt Natura_." She had never actually cast the spell on an animagus before, since the only one she knew of was McGonagall. She was somewhat satisfied to know she had learned it correctly, as the rat quickly grew and became an unconscious fat little wart of a man whose front teeth made hers seem positively tiny. That was unexpectedly gratifying.

"Yes, yes!! Ha ha!" Sirius slapped the desktop in glee as Peter Pettigrew returned from the dead. She slipped him into a desk seat out of arms' reach of Mister Black. "Thank you, miss!"

"So... clearly the man you went to prison for killing is not dead. Must be why they're so hot to have the Dementors eat you."

"Quite likely. Can't admit mistakes and make things right when it's so much easier and cheaper and safer to just murder me and sweep the whole thing under the rug."

"That was my thinking. So... why should I let you go rather than turn you in and be a hero to the Ministry?"

The grin fell from Black's face. "Uhhh..."

She had no intention of doing so, of course, but it was terribly amusing to see him squirm. She knew if she took him anywhere near any kind of authority figure the Dementors would follow within moments, and they would 'take care of' her as well. Oops sorry, the Dementors went crazy and killed the brave young lady who turned Black in. We feel really bad about it. Predictable shitbags.

"Because you're a nice person and value truth and fairness?" Mister Black said in a plaintive tone.

She had a thought then, and maneuvered Pettigrew's arms so the backs of his hands were flat against the top of the desk. " _Adhaerentia_. _Adhaerentia_." She glued his hands in place, then glued the desk to the stone floor. She pulled his sleeves up, and saw the Dark Mark on his left forearm. It _writhed_ slightly under his skin. It gave her the creeps, though she wasn't sure whether that was the tattoo itself or the fact that it meant this person in front of her had murdered and tortured and probably raped.

She had a moment of clarity then, and she realized she was in no way equipped to deal with the situation. She wanted to hand him over and run away and hide and never deal with anything so serious again. This was _evil_. This... thing... in front of her would rape or kill her if given the chance. The thought made her shiver and she was somewhat horrified to discover she wanted to kill him right then and there. It needed to die, to become a Nonthreat.

'It's just a feeling, Hermione. Get your shit together.' She told herself. 'This is exactly why you study. The more you know the better able you are to defend yourself.'

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then screwed up her determination and searched his pockets. She came up with a few galleons, three chocolate frogs, and two wands. She pushed him from behind until he lifted off the chair enough to check his back pockets, but he didn't have any. She did find a spare wand in a holster at the small of his back though. She checked his ankles for spare wands as well, but only found a mismatched pair of disgustingly smelly socks.

She put all three wands in her bookbag and felt a great deal more relaxed. That's when the solution to the whole transforming into a rat problem presented itself.

She couldn't keep him stunned forever, she had to do something with him. He would wake up on his own in a couple of hours. So how to keep him in one place after he woke up and was able to transform? He was a rat. His rat form was small, and that's how he had escaped in the past. She pointed her own wand at his feet. " _Adhaerentia_." With his feet glued to the floor and his hands glued to the desk, if he turned into a rat he'd break his elbows backward and rip his hands off. _Adhaerentia_ was such a low-level charm she doubted the ones she'd already cast on him would wear out before the end of term. Take that, evil.

"I'll be back with some clothes and food. Use the time to think about how to get around the kiss on sight order." She told Black.

"Leaving me stuck to the chair?" He asked anxiously.

"Yes. I don't trust you. You'll also need him alive if you want to come out of this still breathing." She didn't bother to wait for a reply, she just left and closed and sealed the door behind her, then cast _Silencio_ on the door to make sure nobody heard him if he started yelling.

The kitchens were bustling when she arrived, same as they always were. She cancelled her Disillusionment and silence, and before she had even put her wand away Lammy appeared in front of her.

"Lammy bes happy to see Miss Hermione again! Lammy can help?"

"Yes, thank you Lammy. I have two questions for you. First, If you don't mind, could I have a few sandwiches and some juice? And second, is there a place for old clothes that people don't wear anymore? I need some old clothes for a... an acquaintance."

Lammy nodded. "Lammy bes back in a moment with food and drink, then we goes to the Come and Go room."

She smiled. "Thank you so much, Lammy."

Lammy popped away and returned a short while later with a small basket.

"Miss Hermione bes holding Lammy's hand and we goes to the Come and Go room now." She held her hand out to Hermione and Hermione took it. She was unprepared for the _squeezed_ sensation as they Apparated. One second they were in the kitchens, the next they were on the seventh floor next to a tapestry of dancing trolls.

"Come and go room has lots of old things, clothes, desks, books, everything." Lammy said as she paced back and forth on the other side of the hallway beside a blank wall. After a moment, a door appeared in the wall. It just faded into existence in the blank wall as she watched it.

"Lammy, that's amazing! Come and go room, I get it!"

Lammy nodded vigorously and opened the door for her. The inside of the room held enormous twenty foot-high piles of furniture and trunks and brooms and statues and paintings and every kind of thing imaginable. She would _definitely_ return there. Who knew what kind of things she could find?

"What kind of clothes Miss Hermione bes looking for?" Lammy asked.

"Boy clothes, about this tall." She held her hand six inches above her own head. "Pants, shirts, shoes, and robes if you can find them."

Lammy nodded and popped away.

Hermione started sifting through the nearest pile of items. She was looking for clothes, she really was. When Lammy popped up next to her later, she had a decent stack of books ready to get back to her hideyhole.

"Lammy finded clothes for Miss Hermione!" She held up armfuls of clothing.

"Thank you Lammy, that was very helpful." She put as many of her stack of books as she could in her bookbag, and folded the clothes Lammy found and put them on top of the rest of the books, then a pair of shoes on top of that. "Could you take me to classroom four F please Lammy?"

Lammy nodded. "Lammy can bes doing that."

"Thank you Lammy for all your help." She picked up the stack of books and clothes, Lammy put her hand on Hermione's arm, and they appeared outside the classroom she'd left Black and Pettigrew in.

"Lammy goes back to kitchens, Miss Hermione. If Miss Hermione needs Lammy, Miss Hermione just bes calling, Lammy will come."

"Aww, thank you so much Lammy, I really appreciate your help. If I need you I will definitely call."

Lammy smiled and disappeared with a soft _pop_.

Hermione reapplied her disillusionment before she entered the room and closed the door behind her, then set her burden down and sealed the room. She set the basket of sandwiches and juice in front of Black and he didn't even hesitate to grab one and eat.

"Aangyou." He said around a mouthful.

She put the clothes on the desk next to him. "Have you thought of a way to get out of your situation?"

He swallowed and sighed. "I can only see one shot that involves telling anyone and maybe getting off the hook. It's a longshot. It might make everything alright again, and might get me killed. Just getting gone to a different country would leave me poor but very much alive."

"You really need to stop the half answers and vague nonsense. I _can and will_ just leave you here, you know." Typical fucking adult, thinking they could hide information from her and then claim it's for her own good or some other patronizing bullshit. They just didn't want to speak the whole truth because they were embarrassed. Fucking insulting.

He finished that sandwich and swallowed his mouthful. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry. It's a bad habit, I know. I'm full of them. I am truly grateful that you listened and chose to help me, really. The longshot is turning myself in to the head of the Dee-Emm-Ell-Eee. The _Prophet_ said the head of the DMLE is Amelia Bones. I was good friends with her older brother Edgar, and Amelia and I dated a few times before all that unfortunate mess and going to Azkaban without a trial. I might be able to trust her, but it's been twelve years. She may hate me by now, I don't know."

Hermione rolled her eyes, even though she knew he couldn't see her. Was she the _only_ one in the castle with half a brain?

"You don't need to turn yourself in at all - not immediately, at any rate. You have him. If Amelia is the head of the DMLE and she's gifted a dead man who is very much alive, that will cause an investigation, and if she does half her job she'll find out you were imprisoned without a trial. That's not to say I believe or disbelieve you, of course. You could be feeding me bullshit this whole time and waiting for a chance to escape or worse. The only reason I'm even here talking to you is I know you don't have a wand, and I have four. That, and on the off-chance you're not lying I would rather see justice than corruption win. Your story was somewhat corroborated by the existence of Pettigrew as a rat animagus, so that also bought you some benefit of a doubt."

Sirius wore a grin around his sandwich-crumb infested mouth. "Bloody formidable witch, you are. I like you."

"You're the only one." She said flatly. "Flattery is more likely to get you punched than anything else."

His smile disappeared. "Right. Sorry." He took a deep breath. "I wonder if I might impose on you just a little further? It's just information. I'm desperate for news about my Godson, little Harry. I half-expected to find him here as he would be thirteen this year. Would you happen to know if Harry Potter is a student here?" His eyes held a barely restrained hope, a fear so gentle it cut her to the quick, and she was certain that at least in his asking about the boy he was absolutely genuine.

It was also very unfortunate. She'd read about Harry Potter in _Modern Magical History, Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, and Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts._ She knew very well, just like everyone else, that Harry Potter was dead.

"I'm sorry, Mister Black. Harry Potter was beaten to death by his muggle relative on November second, Nineteen-Eighty-One."

His eyes slowly widened as his mouth slowly twisted to hold back the pain. "No... no." He whispered. "All this time and I failed him from the beginning..." Tears dripped from his eyes and he didn't bother to try to hide them. "He was just a beautiful little baby..."

She understood why he had run off to find Peter then. Thinking about some arsehole beating a baby to death made her blood boil. The only question was, had he learned his lesson after running off after vengeance the first time?

"Where can I find his muggle relative?" Black asked in a hiss.

Apparently not. All emotion, no thought. "He was killed the same day, found dead in a Scotland Yard holding cell."

He slammed his fist down on the top of the desk once, and then a second time after a pause. She thought he'd probably hurt himself at that point.

"Nothing for me..." He whispered to himself, "Nothing."

Hermione dipped into her bookbag and pulled out parchment, quill, and ink. "Yes well, don't give up just yet, a penniless fugitive has little recourse to revenge. Get yourself exonerated and you can do what you like. Here." She put the parchment, ink, and quill on the desk in front of him. "Write a letter to Amelia Bones and ask her to come here immediately. She will of course show up with a troop of Aurors, but you don't have to be here, you can just let them find evil ratface here. I'll go give the letter to her niece Susan, she's in my year. That's the extent of what I'm willing to do for you. You're on your own after that. I don't really know why I'm even willing to do that, honestly. I should have just given you to The Establishment and kept my own peace and quiet."

Black wiped his face on his foream. He picked up the quill, inked it, and began scribbling on the parchment, then stopped. "Don't think because I'm currently in a homicidal despair that I don't appreciate your efforts, Miss Witch. If I do get exonerated, you'll have a powerful ally, whoever you are."

Hermione snorted. "Thank you for the sentiment, Mister Black, but no amount of money or power can give me what I want, and even if it could l wouldn't take it. Finish your letter and I'll deliver it to Missus Bones's niece. Then you're on your own."

He pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded once in her general direction. He resumed scribbling on the parchment for several moments, then put the quill down and picked up the letter and blew on it gently to dry the ink. When it was dry, he put it on the desk next to him. She picked it up and moved out of his arms' reach to use another desk to fold the letter.

" _Quia Non Apertum Amelia Bones_." She whispered, and touched her wand to the letter. It flattened and sealed itself, and she wrote 'Amelia Bones' on the front.

She unsealed the door, opened it a crack, and took a cautious look into the hallway. " _Homenum Revelio_."

Nobody anywhere near.

She put her stack of books in the hall, then left the letter on top of them. She retrieved the basket to give back to Lammy, but left the sandwiches and juice on a desk so Black could finish. After she made sure all signs of her involvement had been eliminated, she paused at the door before she left.

"If you follow me out of this room I'll assume you mean me harm and act appropriately." She informed him. "That isn't to say don't leave. Just don't follow me out."

"Understood." He said hollowly. "I thank you for your gracious assistance."

She cast _Finite_ on him, closed the door and put the letter in a pocket in her robes. She heaved her bookbag onto her back and picked up her stack of books. She made sure no-one was watching, then walked quickly and quietly back to her hideyhole.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"I'm _fine_ , Auntie, really. I'm just a little freaked out by it, that's all. I'm just happy it was another girl and not some boy. I don't know if I could have handled that."

Amelia looked from her niece, perched in her office chair on the other side of her desk, to the letter she had brought with her. She didn't recognize the writing on the front.

"If you're _sure_ you're alright."

Susan smiled back at her. "I am, Auntie, I promise. Not every day you get stuffed into a bathroom stall and handed a letter by an invisible girl, but aside from it being a weird afternoon everything is totally normal."

"DId you recognize her voice at all?"

"No. I can honestly say I've never heard her voice before in my life. She shoved me into the stall, pressed the letter against my chest and said 'Get this to Amelia Bones immediately, it's important. Don't trust the school owls either, the Headbastard intercepts anything you send with a school owl. Use the floo. Better if you go talk to her directly.' Then there were footsteps heading out of the bathroom. That's it."

Amelia frowned. Was Dumbledore actually intercepting mail? She would have to look into that.

"Alright. Thank you Susan, I believe you of course. The primary concern in my life is your safety and happiness, and you know I have to ask questions in any case."

Susan smiled back at her and nodded. "I know, Auntie. I love you too."

That made her smile despite herself. She was growing up _so fast_. "Right then, let's see what this has to say."

She pulled her wand out and cast the customary series of detections on it. No curses, hexes, jinxes, tracking charms, compulsions, or portkeys showed up. It looked like the only thing on the letter was the seal.

She picked the letter up, and it simply fell open. It had been sealed tightly when Susan put it on her desk, so it must have been keyed to open only for her. Nice bit of magic, that.

She opened it fully and set her eyes to the writing within.

**Dear Amelia,**

**I know I'm probably the last wizard you want to hear from, especially when I can't even take you to dinner first, but I need to beg for your help. I've found Peter Pettigrew, he's alive and he's here at Hogwarts with me. I haven't killed him even though every fiber of my being is screaming at me to do so.**

**I was never given a trial, and any digging you do into my trial will tell you that. Fudge has Dementors surrounding Hogwarts with orders to kiss me on sight because he'd rather kill me and sweep the whole mess under the rug and keep his popularity points than correct a mistake. Please come collect Peter yourself, I don't trust anyone else.**

**I'm dreadfully sorry to have to ask this of you, but I will make it up to you once I'm cleared and free, I promise. He'll be waiting for you in 4F near the Armoury.**

**Equal parts thanks and apologies,**

**Sirius Black.**

She read it twice more, then folded it and stuffed into one of her pockets.

"Susan, use my floo and go back to the Manor please. Hogwarts is going to be dangerous for the next little while and I don't want you anywhere near. Sirius Black is inside Hogwarts."

" _What_?!" She sat forward in her chair, aghast.

"I'm going to Hogwarts right now, and I want you to go to the Manor. I'll get you back to school as soon as it's safe."

"Alright Auntie. Be safe." Susan got up and came around her desk to hug her before going to the floo.

"Hopefully it won't be long." She said. Susan threw the powder into the fireplace and disappeared in a flash of green.

Amelia was out of her chair and had the door to her office yanked open in one second flat. "Cass, get me Dresden and Eldridge please, and the new kid, the one with the hair. Tonks, I think."

"Yes Ma'am, right away."

She strapped her spare wand to her ankle, packed her dictaquill and parchment, made sure her bottle of veritaserum was full, and put two sets of manacles on her desk. No sooner had she finished than Tonks knocked on her half-open door.

"You wanted to see me, ma'am?" She asked nervously.

"Yes. Tonks, right?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good. I am on my way to attempt to take Sirius Black into custody, and I thought it might be a good idea to review his previous trial to see what kind of questions were asked. I'd like to task you with bringing me the record of that trial. Just bring it in here and leave it on the desk if I'm not back yet."

Tonks nodded. "Yes ma'am." She turned and left, and passed Dresden and Eldridge on their way in.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"For the love of Nimue." Minerva sighed. Some days it was all she could do to hold back tears while grading. She dropped Mister Weasley's latest offering on the desk, rubbed her hand over her forehead and contemplated a before-dinner dram.

"Transfingerayshun is thu art uv transfingerin." She quoted. "Maybe Argus is right after all..."

A flash of green roused her from despair and focused her attention on the fireplace. Amelia Bones's face appeared.

"Minerva, are you in?" She asked.

"Yes Amelia, what can I do for you?" She answered as she stood and walked around the desk to be visible.

"Would you mind if I came through? Myself and two Aurors."

"No, of course come through." The floo flared and Amelia stepped out, followed by two more flashes and two more Aurors. "What's the occasion?" She asked.

"I got a tip where to find Black, so we're on our way there. He's in the castle."

"Goodness, is he really?" Minerva frowned.

"You're welcome to come along Minerva, so long as you don't try to interfere."

"I really should tell Albus -"

"I don't want Albus to know. I want Black in my custody quickly and quietly. You tell Albus and Albus tells Fudge, then everyone shows up and somehow Black ends up dead before I can question him. No, come along if you must, but no Dumbledore, no Fudge."

Minerva felt her lips purse in consternation, but she had to agree. "Very well. Have you a destination in mind?"

"Tip said fourth floor near the Armoury. Let's go."

The door was locked when they arrived, so Eldridge pointed her wand at it and it unlocked. Dresden and Eldridge immediately flanked the door. Minerva was carefully situated far to the side near the wall behind Amelia in order to avoid any possible spellfire that might come from opening the door.

Dresden threw open the door and stepped back out of sight, but no spellfire came. Amelia risked a peek inside the room; there was only one person in the room and he was unconscious.

" _Homenum Revelio_." She cast, and confirmed what her eyes told her. "All clear." She told her backup.

"That's Peter Pettigrew!" Minerva gasped when she entered the room behind them.

Eldridge's and Dresden's heads snapped up and looked at Amelia.

"He's supposed to be dead." Eldridge said.

"Great. I just _love_ mysteries." Ameila growled. "Especially when they involve marked Death Eaters."

Dresden flicked his wand at Pettigrew, and instead of him waking up as per his _Rennervate_ , a message sprang into existence in the air over Pettigrew's head.

 **To Whom It May Concern: Peter Pettigrew is a Rat animagus. I have glued his feet to the floor and his forearms to the desk to prevent his transformation. Use Caution**.

"Interesting. Can you confirm that, Minerva?" Amelia asked.

She took out her wand and cast silently at Pettigrew. To her eyes, Pettigrew was overlaid with the image of a common brown rat within his chest.

She nodded. "Rat animagus, just as it says."

"Right, so we leave him glued down then?" Dresden asked.

"Seems the most expedient thing to do." Amelia agreed. "Wake him so we can get some veritaserum into him. She pulled parchment and a dictaquill from her waistpouch and enlarged them to normal size. She set them down on one of the desks and cleared her throat. "Test test test." She said, and the dictaquill scrabbled her words onto the page.

Dresden fired another _Rennervate_ at Pettigrew, and this one seemed to work. Pettigrew snorted as he woke, and his eyes shot wide open when he saw where he was and that he was surrounded by Aurors. His sleeves were both rolled up to his elbows, and the backs of his hands were glued to the table. His Dark Mark was on display to everyone in the room.

Icy fingers of fear began to caress his ribs, and stoked a rising panic.

"Don't transform." Amelia told him. "You'll rip yourself apart. You're glued to the desk and the floor."

His breath started to come faster as panic creeped up his neck.

Eldridge flicked her wand at him, and he relaxed. He was still anxious and unhappy, but much more calm.

"Mister Pettigrew." Amelia said in a commanding tone, "You are in violation of statute sixty-one J, subsection two, paragraph four - the requirement to notify the authorities of a wrongful proclamation of death. As such, you will be questioned under veritaserum. Do you have any questions before we begin?"

"Umm..." He looked around, "Could you not?"

"Let the record show that Peter Pettigrew requested that he not be questioned. Let the record further show that he bears the Dark Mark on his left inner forearm. Auror Dresden, if you would assist Mister Pettigrew in accepting his dose of veritaserum please?"

Dresden sighed. "Yes ma'am." He grumbled. He reached down Pettigrew's face from above and hooked two fingers into his nostrils and yanked upward. Pettirew's mouth came open, and he hooked two fingers over his lower teeth and pulled down enough to keep his mouth wide open.

Amelia dripped three drops of veritaserum into Pettigrew's mouth, and Dresden waited a moment until the potion had been absorbed before he released his hold on Pettigrew's face.

Amelia started the questioning with why he hadn't come forward to refute his declaration of death, then flipped to the events of Halloween Nineteen-Eighty-One, his subsequent encounter with Sirius Black and how and why he went into hiding. She then backtracked and asked him when he had received his Dark Mark and what he'd done to earn it, then flipped forward again to ask about being the Potters' Secret Keeper and whether or not Sirius Black ever had been. After that, she asked him to name every last Death Eater, marked or not, that he knew about. That took a long time and made both Dresden and Eldridge blanch more than once. It turned out they worked with several, and each had dated at least one. Dresden was in the process of dating his third. After recording all the names he knew, she asked him why he was still in hiding, what he was doing at Hogwarts, and what his plans were.

It turned out Peter Pettigrew was hiding from everyone, including Voldemort, and desperately wanted to never receive orders again. He liked safety and lots of free food.

Minerva thought he'd chosen well, since it seemed Ronald Weasley wanted to stay at Hogwarts forever without graduating as well.

  
  


* * *

  
  


'Poor Professor Flitwick.' She thought to herself. 'Up there day after day, struggling to go slowly enough for these idiots.' They were supposedly learning the Cheering Charm that morning, but the class was chaotic failure. Daphne Greengrass on the far side of the room completed the spell perfectly the first time, true to form. She’d watched Daphne’s performance in classes, Hermione knew she read and practiced ahead, but she didn't take it as far as she could. In contrast, Draco Malfoy practically screamed " _Beatitudinem_!" and slashed his wand at Crabbe's face as though he tried to beat him into happiness with it. Weasley used his wand as a miniature broom to illustrate quidditch plays to Finnegan.

She waited until the Professor's attention was focused elsewhere, and conjured three paper cranes on her desk, which she then used as practice for her Reductor curse. She could _do_ the curse, she knew that because she had practiced by the lake when nobody was around. It was difficult to keep the amount of power she put into the curse minimal, so she practiced only putting enough power into it to destroy a single paper crane. First it was too little, and the crane merely fell over. She waited patiently for the professor to be occupied elsewhere again, and tried with just a hair more power. Satisfyingly, the crane vanished in a puff of parchment dust. She smiled quietly to herself and repeated the curse at the next crane, and the third. She exhaled and blew the remnants of them on the floor.

"Miss Granger." Professor Flitwick's high, lilting voice cut through the class chatter. "Would you be so kind as to demonstrate the Cheering Charm on me?"

She felt her cheeks heat. Everything in the classroom stopped and every single eye was on her. She could feel their ridicule as though their thoughts were carried through sight. 'What's the bushy beaver done now?' They thought. Or 'Great, now we have to listen to the insufferable know-it-all.' Flitwick knew she hated being called on in class. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? Not to be trusted. None of them could be trusted. None.

Just get through it, Granger. She admonished herself. You can come apart later when you're safe.

She took a deep breath and focused, then flicked her wand at Flitwick. " _Beatitudinem_." She whispered.

Flitwick at once wrapped his arms around himself and bent over as huge guffaws leapt from his throat. She cancelled it after three seconds.

"Thank you, Miss Granger." He said as he straightened and wiped the corners of his eyes with the back of a finger. "Please stay behind after class."

Stay behind? _Stay BEHIND_?!? She chewed on her lip as she went through every possible thing he could want in her head. Thankfully he chose to end the class then. She left her bookbag in her chair and walked up to the front of the class.

"Miss Granger, are you aware you have the best marks in the entire school and have for the last two years?"

Was she aware? Of course she was aware. "Yes Professor." She said softly.

"Frankly I was shocked to see you not paying attention in class, but that was before I saw you practicing a Reductor curse. You are aware that's sixth year material?"

"Yes Professor." In the same small voice. What was his point? Where was he going with this?

"On a personal note, I continue to be deeply saddened you were not sorted into Ravenclaw, Miss Granger."

"If I were sorted today I likely would be, Professor." Fuck Gryffindor and its proud, lazy, entitled arseholes.

Flitwick sighed. "I asked you to stay behind because one of my Ravenclaws needs help, Miss Granger. He hasn't asked for it, but it's my duty as Head of House to mind my students' efforts as well as their wellbeing. I would like to ask you to tutor Mister Corner Sunday afternoons, if it isn't too much of an imposition."

Her first instinct was to say "NO." and run away. The _LAST_ thing she wanted was to do _exactly_ what the stupid prigs made fun of her for... but it was _Michael_. She could see his serious face, those gorgeous blue eyes. He'd bite his lip as he struggled to understand, then beam that smile at her when he did. He'd be grateful for her help. She wouldn't push too hard, she'd have to let him catch up before they learned new things. He'd brush her hand first as they studied in the library, and they'd share a quiet, embarrassed smile. She'd brush up against him as they walked one day, then when he was caught up and didn't need her anymore, he'd trap her between his arms against the library shelves and tell her he didn't want to stop learning from her. He'd inch his face closer to hers, so deliciously slowly...

"Miss Granger?"

She could feel his soft lips on hers as her bits began to tingle. "Yes." She whispered, she would succumb to those lips, his taut body pressed against hers...

"Excellent, thank you Miss Granger. I'll let him know he is to be in the library Sunday afternoon at one. That is your preferred place of study, yes?"

Wait, what!? She hadn't agreed to anything! Oh _shit_...

'This is your chance!' A tiny, beaten-down part of her brain told her. You can do it! You've survived your parents and public school and all the arseholes everywhere, and you're _still_ top of the school. Be your awesome self, and you can do it!

Her face went red, she was sure of it. She nodded to Flitwick. "Sunday at one."

"Thank you, Miss Granger." He said.

She had to stop herself from running back to her seat as panic made her nerves tingle. Stupid! Stupid! She lashed herself. She would get tongue-tied and start crying or something equally stupid and embarrassing. He would laugh at her just like everyone else.

_But what if he didn't?_

She worried at her lower lip as she reached over to pick her bookbag up from her seat... only to find it wasn't there.

She frowned and went back to the teacher's desk, but it wasn't there either. She didn't think she'd set it down there while talking to him and then forgotten it. No, she was sure she'd left it at her seat.

She'd left it unattended.

She raced out of the classroom and along the hall, first one way to the end, then back again when she didn't find it. She searched every room on that floor, then started a methodical room-by-room search of each lower floor. Luckily she didn't have to start searching the dorms of other houses. She found it two hours later in the courtyard near the transfiguration classroom.

The crowd that had gathered slowly parted when she arrived, and she saw her bookbag against the wall, beneath a very well-drawn likeness of her face, four feet high. It had a frizzled brown cloud around her face that stuck straight out from her head like she had fifty thousand volts running through her. Birds nested on top of it. Her eyes were crossed and squinty, and her two front teeth stuck out of her mouth, long and thick enough to obscure her chin.

Draco Malfoy stood in a group that openly pointed and laughed at the caricature, and obviously didn't care who saw him do so. Most of the rest of the crowd had the grace to immediately leave when she arrived, but there were still dozens of students milling about.

"It's only a shame I've no idea who the brilliant artist is," Malfoy half-shouted, "I'd commission one twenty feet tall for the front gates!" He and his little group of sycophants all laughed at her. "Best picture of a mudblood I've ever seen!"

"Sure it's not a photograph, Draco?" Parkinson slid her hand across Draco's chest while she sneered at Hermione.

"You know Pansy, I think _urine_ the right!" They all laughed again, exaggeratedly, with finger pointing.

Then she caught a whiff of her bookbag and understood.

Someone - or several someones - had actually _pissed_ in her bookbag. The stench of it was thick, and she could see it running in the grooves of the flagstones.

"Urine the right!" Malfoy repeated himself to more laughter.

Hermione took her wand out and levitated the books out of it. She left them in the air off to the side as she burned the bookbag to ash in seconds. She paused to make sure everyone around her was watching.

She summoned every scrap of magic she could spare, and screamed at her 'portrait'.

" _REDUCTO_!"

Her entire portrait and half the wall behind it exploded into fine, razor-sharp stone shrapnel and bathed the assembled crowd.

She knew it was coming, and raised a shield. When the explosion was over, she calmly walked back into the castle as her piss-stained books - most of them from the library - floated along behind her. From the moans and groans she left in her wake, she thought there might be competition for a bed in the hospital wing later. At least they would think once before assuming they could denigrate her with impunity.

Even after - or maybe especially after - standing up to them, she barely reached the fourth floor before her hands started to shake and her knee went weak. She dropped the soiled books in the classroom she'd stored Pettigrew in, then disillusioned herself and made a beeline for her hideyhole.

Tears made wet spots on her robes by the time she opened the secret bookcase, and she could feel her mouth twisting as she opened her secret door. It was all she could do to close the door again and limp to the bed before she collapsed on top of it and sobbed from the bottom of her own personal hell.

  
  


* * *

  
  


She was glad she didn't have any other classes after charms. After she had cried herself out she had fallen asleep, only to be woken by the announcement of the mandatory-attendance dinner. Admittedly, she did feel a little better for having slept, though no amount of sleep could comfort the raw hurt and rage that boiled inside her.

The mandatory Feast was for "important announcements", she would bet her book collection on it. As if she didn't know everything the Headbastard was going to say already.

He'd raise his arms for dramatic effect, wait for quiet and attention for two beats, then use his grandfatherly tone. 'Thankfully the presence of the Dementors that have been posted about the grounds has been removed, and they will no longer darken our skies...' blah blah blah. He would drink in the applause and attention... As though he had a single fucking thing to do with solving the issue.

What did Hermione Granger get for ending the threat against the school?

"Hey Granger, what's wrong? You look a little _yellow_!" Weasley called from the other end of the table. He laughed and pointed at her. His cronies laughed as well, but she noticed his twin brothers gave each other concerned looks.

She wasn't looking forward to cleaning those books. It would take a long, tedious time to remove the urine from each page. She was tempted to save it all up and put it in Weasley's pumpkin juice.

She would have to get herself another bookbag as well - probably when she went home for Christmas. Unless... She had a brainwave, and sat upright in her seat.

The Come and Go room! She could check the Lost and Never Found. Maybe there was a bookbag she could use in the meantime in there. She went over the things she'd seen in there in her head, but sadly she didn't recall seeing any bookbags. She was so consumed by her thoughts, she didn't notice the blonde girl sit gently next to her.

"What did Ronald mean by that?" She asked. Luna's normal, deliberately uncaring tone of voice had a hard edge to it.

She felt her eyes sting as she looked into Luna's concerned face, and her vision went watery. She sniffed and bit her lips and shook her head. She couldn't talk about it, even if Luna might be the one person in the castle who was sympathetic.

She put her head down on her arms and breathed deeply so that on-one could see her get her tears under control. Luna's hand stroked her shoulder for a moment, and that was just strange. She wasn't really sure what to make of that. Was the girl attempting to comfort her? If so, why? She'd said exactly one word to Luna in two years. They weren't friends. She didn't have any friends.

Ironically, Luna's attempt at... whatever it was did more to dry her tears than it might have if they were friends. Trying to work out what had happened and why had put her bookbag completely out of her mind.

She snuck a peek at Luna, and she still sat next to her, but Luna glared at Weasley. Footsteps on her far side announced her Head of House, McGonagall. That would be her punishment for being victimized.

"Miss Granger, the Headmaster would like to see you in his office after dinner."

Right on schedule.

She just nodded once at McGonagall without looking at her. She didn't deserve anything else. She was as trustworthy as a bridge made of tissue paper, and she'd proven it over and over again. She and the Headbastard were entirely responsible for curing her of her trust in authority figures.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the Headbastard stood up at his podium and raised his arms. Two seconds later, when quiet descended on the Great Hall, he began to speak. "Some of you will be gladdened to know that the Dementors which have darkened our skies these past months have been recalled to Azkaban." Applause and cheers surged from the students, and he smiled benignly while he soaked in it. She would have to put up with that shit after dinner too. "Additionally, a reward has been offered for information regarding the whereabouts of Sirius Black."

She bit back a chuckle. Apparently Black had half a brain in his head after all and had buggered off to wait and see if he was offered a trial.

The Headbastard sat back down on his gilded throne, and the food appeared. Hermione picked at a few things but didn't bother to eat a lot. Every time she was forced to visit the Headbastard she felt like throwing up anyway. It would probably be a month with Filch this time.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Sunday dawned cold, grey and dingy, just like every other November day in Scotland. Hermione actually slept until half-seven, a whole hour later than normal. She was unused to the physical exertion cleaning the trophy room by hand needed, and she made a mental note to try to work some kind of exercise into her day.

She had moved her bookshelves around inside her hideyhole and made room for a makeshift shower that consisted of a small round tub on the floor, and an old sink attached to the wall six feet up via sticking charm. She'd conjured a hand-held shower nozzle and attached it to the underside of the sink drain, with a hook on the side of the sink for the showerhead to rest in when she wasn't using it. She'd half-filled the sink with water, then put a permanent refilling charm on it as well as a permanent warming charm. It wasn't quite as hot as she'd like the water, not quite steaming, but it did the job and it was private. That was worth a lot more.

She showered and dressed before she Vanished the bathwater. She reviewed the majority of her third-year notes before lunch, then visited the kitchens under her usual nondetection spells. Lammy made her a lovely vegetable soup, and she did her best to eat it, but only managed half even with Lammy encouraging her.

She arrived at precisely twelve-thirty, and chose a table in the library as far away from everything as possible. Only when she saw him approach did she realize her choice of table could be construed as wanting to be alone with him. She _did_ want to be alone with him, of course, but she hadn't meant it to be while she was tutoring him. Damn! He hadn't even sat down and she was dangerously close to hyperventilation.

He came over to her table and sat down opposite her. His skin was even more pale than in his picture, and it only made his eyes more blue and his lips more red. The butterflies in her stomach crashed together and fused into a ball of heat that trickled downward into her knickers. She had to focus on just breathing and looked down at the table in order to calm down enough to speak.

"What... What was it you wanted help with?" She asked. Even to her own ears, her voice came out low and breathy.

"Arithmancy." He said flatly. She didn't hear it that way, of course. Rainbows and unicorns when he spoke. His very slight Irish accent made her stomach dance.

She flipped to her third-year Arithmancy notes, and pulled open the textbook. "Anything specific?"

"Yes, actually. I need to know Wilkes Arrays, specifically how they relate to intent-based Wards."

She turned the page to where she had that particular Wilkes Array already drawn out. "It's different from the standard array because there needs to be input on the outside of the Wards as well as the inside -"

"Actually," He interrupted, "I don't have a lot of time today, would you mind just copying that so I can study it later? I'm sort of booked until curfew."

That was both a disappointment and a relief.

She took her wand out and copied the page for him, then handed him the copy.

"Great, thanks." He smiled at her, and his white teeth made her heart thump like a power hammer. He _smiled_ at her. At _her_.

"No problem," She squeaked.

He jogged out of the library, but he might as well have been moving in slow motion. The air caught his robes just so, his silky hair bounced and flounced wildly like a black mane, and his lean form etched itself into her memory.

Hermione applied her three nondetections and ran full tilt back to her hideyhole.

She dropped her satchel by the loveseat and stripped off her robes. Skirt up, knickers off, she flopped onto the bed and both hands went to work on the searing ball of fire that lay between her legs. She knew herself well enough to hit the sensitive spots, but it never seemed to satisfy the ache to be filled. Even as she pinched and kneaded and rubbed, she was aware of that deep hunger, that _hollow_ feeling. It subsided mostly after she'd had an orgasm, but it didn't really go away until the sex in her head did.

It was a wonderful curse, those new feelings. On the one hand they were incredibly annoying and got in the way of just about everything. Part of her longed for the days before them, when her body didn't do things on its own or make her feel things she didn't want to. On the other hand, they felt _so good_. Before puberty, she couldn't have imagined the kind of fireworks that went off in her brain and all over her body.

Thoughts of him pushing himself into her drove her over the edge. Thoughts of him pushing her up against the bookshelves in the library and taking her lips with his stoked her heat again and made her whine as her already-sensitive bits demanded more attention.

Finally, after she’d punished her groin for more than half an hour, she collapsed back to her mattress and panted. She lay there and felt the air currents caressing her swollen, naked sex, and that part of her was... if not satisfied, then appeased for the time being.

The aching hollowness shifted back into her chest where it usually lived.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Sundays were her new favourite day. Michael never had much time on Sundays, so they got right to studying when he arrived at their table. Their third Sunday, he'd brought her a sugar quill from Honeydukes. It had been a Hogsmeade weekend, and he had volunteered to help at Tomes and Scrolls that Saturday, but he'd thought to nip into Honeydukes just for her. She completely understood that he had to go, he was so busy. She volunteered to copy out the relevant notes and send them to him, it was the least she could do to repay his thoughtfulness.

Their fifth Sunday, he had volunteered to help Hagrid with some sick crups, and he had only come back into the castle to keep his date with her. He'd brought her some flowers that he'd seen growing near the forest because they reminded him of her. He couldn't ask her to copy her notes again though, so he would have to try to muddle through best he could on his own. He didn't want to be a burden.

She gave him a copy of her notes and wrote out the explanation for him, and asked Lammy take it directly to his dorm.

The next Sunday was their last of the term, they would board the train Monday morning for Christmas break. She enlisted Lammy's help in searching the Come and Go room for a suitable Christmas gift for Michael. It took them hours, but she found a beautiful leather satchel embroidered with the Ravenclaw House crest, and accented with its colours.

She hugged Lammy and thanked her for her help. She was so excited that night it took ages to get to sleep.

The days swept by as days do, until finally Sunday rolled around. Hermione sat at their table waiting for Michael, her feet swung back and forth and a smile graced her lips. The hollow feeling in her chest had shrunk day by day and left a strange, bubbly sort of feeling in its wake.

Michael swept into the library, walking quickly, and didn't even sit down. He stood beside her and leaned forward onto the table on his elbows.

"Sorry I can't stay. I don't actually need anything this week, you've been an absolute star, and I only wanted to come and say thank you and wish you Happy Christmas." He reached out and put his hand on her far shoulder and gave a quick squeeze. Then he was off, walking toward the exit again.

He _touched_ her.

The sun rose in her chest. Birds sang. Flowers bloomed.

She looked over at her shoulder where he'd deliberately touched her, and noticed just beyond her shoulder was the satchel she had intended to give him.

She grabbed it and rose from her chair to walk as quickly as she dared out of the library. She cast _Homenum Revelio_ to try and see which way he'd gone, and caught sight of a figure moving away that moved like he did, so she chased after him.

She caught up to him after he'd entered a disused classroom on the second floor. She reached out to open the door, but a laugh from inside the room stopped her. It was a noise she'd recognize anywhere, and it was made by Ronald Bilius Weasley.

" _Sonus Amplificare_." She whispered, and the voices on the other side of the door came through as though the door weren't there at all.

"...So I said she'd been an absolute star and I only wanted to wish her Happy Christmas." Michael said. He laughed then, as did three other voices.

"Don't know how you manage it, Michael. You must have a stomach of cast iron." A female voice said.

"I absolutely do, and it's all I can do to sit there at the table with her with a straight face. I keep seeing Thomas's mural. That bloody bird's nest and those squinty eyes!" More laughter. "You were absolutely right, Ginny. She's completely soft on me. Besotted."

"At least you're getting your homework done for free." Ronald griped. "Not so bloody smart for top of the class I reckon."

"Have you kissed her yet?" New female voice. More laughter.

"Thanks for that, excellent way to ruin Christmas. Now I'm going to have nightmares for sure." Michael answered with another laugh.

"Told you she was a bloody nightmare." Ronald said. "Think she suspects it was us pissed in her bag?"

Michael laughed. "Nah mate, she hasn't the ghost of a clue. It's all I can do to not laugh every single time." They all laughed.

She walked numbly back to the library and packed her things, then back to her hideyhole where she belonged.

Where no-one could hear her heart shatter.


	4. Chapter 4

  
  


It was early yet, barely quarter past ten, and the platform was mostly empty. It made no sense that he had to floo five hundred miles south to London just so he could board a train for a six hour ride to cover that same five hundred miles north. Why couldn't he just have gone to the bloody school?

Harry sighed. The more he learned about being a pinkskin, the less sense they made.

"Wha's got yer knickers in a twist, Dunc?" Argie asked.

"I could have _walked_ to the school in less than six hours." Harry complained. "This train ride makes no sense."

"Aye." Fergus agreed with a grin, "Noon at all."

"Ye could look at it tha' way, tha' it's jus' irritatin', or ye could look at it as an opportunity te get te knoo yer faillow students, an' maybe make a fraind or two before ye get there." Maisie said with a soft smile.

Harry's frown vanished. "I hadn't thought of that. It's still annoying, but you're right, there is a matter of perspective involved. Thanks Maisie." He stepped forward and hugged her. "I'll try to remember to look at things from different angles."

Maisie hugged him back. "Baist of luck, son. Remaimber te be yersailf, and saind us laitters when ye can." She smiled and kissed his cheek as she let him go.

"I'll go then, see if I can find a new friend to spend six hours with." Harry smiled back.

Fergus pulled him into a hug as well. "We'll miss ye."

Darcy wrapped her arms around him next. "Whain ye do meet a new fraind, bring 'er home so we can taill ye she's no good enoof fer ye."

Maise slapped Darcy on the shoulder. "Dinnae make the lad think we'll hate his ladyfraind, y'orrible gairl!"

Harry smiled at Maisie. "I'll just have to make friends with the whole quidditch league and then _not_ bring them home." He winked at Darcy.

'Ye're a cruel, cruel bai." Darcy said seriously.

"Oh leave off." Argie shoved Darcy out of the way and claimed her hug. "Saind us a laitter when ye can, whain ye want, or whain y'ave quaistions, we'll be waitin' te hear from ye." She kissed his cheek as well, then let him go.

He nodded to Argie, then looked at the rest of his third family. "Aye, I will. I'll never be able to thank you enough for taking me in and teaching me and treating me like family."

"Ye _ARE_ family, ye massive goon." Fergus grinned.

Harry just grinned back at them all. "I'll miss you all." He said with a warm smile. "I'll write when I can. See you later." He turned and walked to the nearest entry point to the train, then turned again and waved from the door.

It was hard to turn away the last time, from the warmth and affection he knew. He would see them again in a few months, he knew that, and it wasn't as though they would all just disappear once he was somewhere else. The lump in his throat was at least balanced out by the thrill of the looming unknown and he was eager to make friends, having never had any before.

He walked the whole length of the train front to back, and there was not a single person on board yet besides himself. He turned around when he reached the back of the train and started to walk to the front again, but something tickled a part of his brain. His power told him there was something hidden to his right. He forced himself to look at the place that didn't want him looking at it, and to his surprise, it was another compartment, rather than the solid wall it had wanted him to see.

The blinds were all drawn so he couldn't see inside the compartment to tell if anyone was there, so he tried the door handle. It was locked. He looked up the train again and wondered if maybe one of the conductors had locked it, but he couldn't see anyone. Well, it couldn't hurt to just have a peek and then lock it again if it was off-limits.

" _Alohomora_." He said, and the lock clicked open. He opened the door and stepped inside, then closed the door behind him.

There was a girl on one of the seats, arms crossed in front of her as she leaned back against the outside wall. She stared at him with a mixture of anger and surprise. She had soft-looking brown hair that draped down her back and stuck out to the sides, wild and free. Gorgeous rich chestnut eyes darted this way and that, taking all of him in and analyzing him. She had perfectly shaped lips, slightly parted as she stared at him, and only just showed dazzling white teeth and the tip of her pink tongue. All in all, Harry thought she was rather beautiful. He wondered how it might feel to kiss her.

'Hi!" Harry grinned and waved. "I'm Duncan MacFusty, this is my first year going to Hogwarts, I'm kind of excited. I hope you don't mind my coming in, I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

She didn't say anything, she just looked at him as though trying to solve him like he was a puzzle. For some reason, the longer she went without saying anything, the more embarrassed he became. He was unsure what to make of that.

"Okay, sorry. Didn't mean to disturb, I'll just go then." He opened the door and slunk out. "Sorry." He whispered as he closed the door and cast _Clauditis_ to lock it again.

He picked the next compartment forward and walked in, still red-faced from embarrassing himself. He had changed into his school uniform and robes while still at home, as he thought having to change clothes on the train was silly. He took his trunk out of his pocket and enlarged it, and took out Enchanting Enchantments. He had looked forward to reading since he bought it, but he'd saved it for the train ride. He put the trunk back in his pocket and settled beside the window, in the same place the pretty girl in the next compartment was seated.

He started to read, and it seemed like he'd just begun when the train lurched and lurched again, and the station began to slowly slide by the window. Harry got lost in imagining enchantments he could put on things, and he didn't know how much later it was when a girl opened his compartment door. He noticed a big red P on a badge on her robes.

"Hello, I don't recognize you. Are you a new professor?" She asked him.

He stood and bowed slightly. "New fourth year, ma'am. Duncan MacFusty. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Prefect Penelope Clearwater, Mister MacFusty. Thank you for your elegant greeting. I look forward to seeing you in school." She smiled at him, but he could tell her eyes were sizing him up, measuring his body head to toe. Her gaze lingered on him, and he was forced to stand there and smile while getting both more embarrassed and irritated by the second. Finally, she seemed to realize she was staring, and flashed a quick smile as she retreated and closed the door again.

He went back to his book, but a couple of times he looked up to see different people looking at him through the windows. Why didn't they just talk to him? Why treat him like he was a zoo animal? He would have closed the blinds and denied them, but he didn't want to seem like he was hiding or deliberately trying to keep people away. Pinkskins were so odd. What was in their heads?

He heard the door handle turn after he'd finished a few chapters - he didn't really know what time it was or how long they'd been travelling because he'd had his head in his book. A girl with long blonde hair, almost white, entered his compartment and sat on the seat across from him.

"Hello." She said, with a strange sort of half-smile. He could see her eyes drinking in the information around her. Her smile seemed semi-vapid, and she cocked her head to one side, but he could tell the smile was deliberate. Her eyes held a vibrant intellect.

He stood and bowed as was proper, even though she didn't hold her hand out.

"Greetings, Lady. My name is Duncan MacFusty. It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Her smile deepened, and her eyes began to smile as well. "It is my pleasure to meet you as well, Mister MacFusty. My name is Luna Lovegood."

Harry grinned. "What a wonderful name! Love ye well the moon and her ethereal radiance, for she is our Lady of moods and tides. She is our light in the darkness."

Luna's eyes went wide and her cheeks turned pink, but her smile shone. "Where is that from?" She asked.

Harry bowed again. "From Duncan MacFusty, on the train to Hogwarts."

"You made that up just now for me?"

"You inspired me." He smiled back.

"May I call you Duncan?"

"Please do, Lady Lovegood. May I call you Luna?"

"Yes please. As often as possible."

Harry laughed and resumed his seat.

"Do you have a girlfriend, Duncan?"

"As a matter of fact Luna, I don't. I've never had a friend of any kind, sad to say."

"Never? No friends at all?"

"Not really, no. I might have had some in the past, but they became family when they took me in, so not really friends, no."

"Yes, it's not quite the same, is it? I've never had a friend before either. Would you... could I be your friend? We could both be first friends."

"I would like that very much, Luna. Thank you for consenting to be my first friend."

"Likewise, Duncan."

"So... What do friends do, exactly? I've observed that they spend time together and talk, but I'm not clear on what they talk about or how much time is appropriate. I wouldn't want to be rude to my very first friend."

Luna smiled. "That's very considerate of you. I've noticed that friends enjoy spending time together, and are close enough to tell each other when they want some time apart. In my case I have no trouble with telling you if I want to go talk to someone else or go searching for bearded mugwumps, so have no fear in that regard."

"Brilliant." Harry said, "If I'm honest, I thought finding friends would be a great deal more difficult."

The train began to gently slow down then.

"Looks like we're coming into Hogsmeade. You haven't been sorted into your house yet, have you?" Luna asked.

"No, not yet."

"I should go collect my things. You should probably stick with the first years. Hagrid will likely be shouting for first years - He does every year - so you won't have any trouble finding where to go. I'm in Ravenclaw, so I'll be cheering for you from the Ravenclaw table."

Harry stood and bowed again with a smile. "Thank you, Lady Luna. You are most gracious."

She smiled back at him. "I think this is going to be a very interesting year." She said before she left.

"I quite agree." Harry said, still smiling at the door.

  
  


* * *

  
  


She ran to the first carriage and didn't bother trying to get inside, she jumped onto the outside seat beside where the driver should go. It only took ten minutes for the carriage to get to the front gates of the castle, and she jumped out of her seat - careful to avoid putting too much weight on her bad knee - and ran into the castle, all the way to the Gryffindor dorms. She grabbed her trunk and made it back out of the common room into the castle proper before any of the other students arrived.

She stowed her trunk in her hideyhole where it belonged, and made her way to the Great Hall where the Welcome Feast was about to begin.

She took her usual seat as far from everyone as possible, and put her head down, then cancelled her nondetections.

'Stupid.' She kicked herself. 'Could have had the whole trip with tall, dark and polite, but what did you do? You stared at him like a deer in headlights until he left. Stupid!' She sighed and bit her lip. 'Doesn't matter anyway, he would have just made fun of you now or later. Just like Michael.'

The first years filed in through the side door then, all smiles and laughter and _chatting_ with MacFusty as he brought up the rear. He was even taller than he'd looked on the train. His smile was clean and white and beautiful, and he seemed completely at ease. His vibrant green eyes met hers then, and he smiled at her.

 _He smiled at her_.

She felt his smile in her stomach, and she decided then that she hated him. How dare he see through her concealment spell! How dare he look like _that_ and be gracious and _spout spur-of-the-moment poetry_ at Luna! Most of all, how dare he be instantly popular and then have the gall to _smile at her_ like she wasn't the worst, most hated thing in the entire school. No, Michael had taught her that lesson _very_ well, thank you. Shame still burned her guts and brought a lump to her throat. No, she was through with hope. No more people. No more being seen. No more. Soon as the Headbastard was finished his asinine announcements, she was gone until Leaving Feast.

She watched surreptitiously as the first years were sorted, but really her eyes were on him- as most were. He stood with poise and patience and perfect posture, a giant among First Years who stood barely level with his armpits. He cheered for every first year sorted, without preference. He was respectful to McGonagall. In fact, he was respectful to the kids being sorted as well.

It was his turn to be Sorted then, and she _definitely_ hated how she had to drag her eyes away from him more than once.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Maisie had said every eye would be on him. Every eye had been on the First Years as well, and his situation was even more rare, according to Hogwarts: A History. "Smaile, act like ye're expaictin' aivery eye on ye, an' behave as ye would nairmally." She'd said. Good advice, and he was happy she'd given it. It seemed to be working.

He cheered for his new little friends when they were sorted, no matter which House they were sorted into. He knew full well how nerve-wracking a thing it was. Thankfully they'd all come through with smiles.

Then it was his turn, and he did his best to stay calm and act like he was meant to be the center of attention, even though it was the last thing he wanted to be. He strode up the stairs to the low stage where the Head Table resided, and sat on the stool. He had to duck his head down so Professor McGonagall could reach to put the hat on him.

He spotted Luna at the Ravenclaw table down the far end, sitting by herself, so he smiled and waved to her. She smiled and waved back, but then his attention was captured by a voice _inside his head_.

"Open your mind for me, would you? There's a good lad." It said.

He frowned, and thought "No, of course not. Why would I ever?"

"I'm the _Sorting_ Hat, I need to see who you are in order to _Sort_ you, yes?"

"I thought the Sorting Hat was magical, that it would just magically know."

Harry thought the thing was swearing at him, but he couldn't quite make it out. "That would be nice, yes. However, that isn't how things are. Now open up or I can't sort you."

Harry thought about it. "Can you be compelled?" He asked it.

"Eh?" It thought back in a tone that suggested it had never been questioned before.

"Can you be compelled? By any reasonable means, I mean. Could someone just spell you and make you tell everything you know? Are you susceptible to the Imperius?"

"Am I susceptible to the _Imperius_ curse? The _Imperius Curse_?!" It harrumphed, "I'll have you know I was not susceptible to the Imperius Curse cast by Salazar Slytherin himself, boy! No, I may not be compelled, not by any reasonable means whatsoever!"

"Okay, good. I apologize if I offered offense, Sir Hat, but I must know before I can show you. Unfortunately, I will also need your word of honour that you will not willingly share anything you know about me with anyone."

"My word?! No-one has ever asked me for my word before."

"If you give me your word you won't share anything you know about me, I will gladly open to you. If you can not, I will have to leave Hogwarts for Beauxbatons."

"Is that a threat, lad?"

"No, Sir Hat. It is the facts of the situation in which we find ourselves."

"Hmph. Very well then, I give you my word of honour I shall not share anything I learn from you with anyone."

"Thank you, Sir Hat, you've put my mind at ease. Welcome."

Harry deliberately opened himself to the hat.

"Oh. Oh my." The hat said, "Yes, I understand. You were quite right to ask, lad. Quite right. I stand by my word, I shan't tell anyone anything. As for your House... I could make a case for all four. Loyal, Brave, Intelligent, Cunning. Any thoughts?"

"Hm. It would be nice to be in the same house as my new friend Luna, but really I'd like to be where I could do the most good. What do you think?"

"You'd do good wherever you landed, lad. I have a hunch though, if you're alright with it?"

"I trust your judgement, Sir Hat. You are the expert, after all."

"Good man, I'll not let you down." The conversation in his head stopped, and the Hat said the next words out loud.

"Better be... GRYFFINDOR!"

The First Years cheered for him, the ones sorted into Gryffindor even more so. Luna cheered for him, but most of the rest of the populace only seemed to care about the sorting being over so they could eat.

Harry went and took a seat at the very end of the group of people at the Gryffindor table, on the far side of the First Years, between them and Mystery Girl at the very far end. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he occasionally caught glimpses of chestnut through her hair. A moment after he was seated, the Feast appeared, and Harry was delighted to witness what he'd only read about.

A smaller boy by the name of Dennis shook his hand and welcomed him to Gryffindor with a smile, but what he said next was drowned out by braying from the end of the table closest to the Head Table.

"Hey Bucky! Read any good piss lately?!"

Mystery Girl's head twitched, and she tried to become smaller than she was, as though she wanted to curl into herself and disappear.

Dennis's smile fell away as Harry turned to look at the filth who had casually tossed shit at a Lady across the dinner table. He was a redhead with a wide face and vacant eyes, obviously performing for his audience who also laughed and jeered. Harry turned to look at the rest of the house. Nobody else was laughing, but neither were they preventing the abuse. They all had looks of fear about them. He turned to look at the Head Table. Not a single professor paid the scene any attention at all. Like such behaviour was not only fine, but accepted and expected.

He looked back at Dennis. Dennis's face told him everything he needed to know.

Nobody was going to do anything.

Harry felt his anger start to bleed into his power even though he tried to control it. "Excuse me for a moment, Dennis." He said, and stood up. He walked over to where the redhead boy sat, and lowered his head to speak to the boy in a semi-hushed tone.

"Hey, what was that about?" He asked.

The redhead spoke with his mouth full, and sprayed bits of food around his plate and onto the boy next to him as he answered with a laugh. "Me an' the boys grabbed bush-head's bookbag last term when she wasn't looking. Too far to make it to the washroom, ey Dean? Too bad you missed it, mate. It was hilarious!"

"I see." Harry said softly. That was why she hadn't said anything when he introduced himself. That was why she locked the door and pulled the blinds and hid behind concealment spells.

Harry's control over his power slipped further, and he could feel his hair begin to whip about his head in the swirl of wind that kicked up. His skin began to heat up, he could feel waves of heat flowing up and down his arms and across his shoulders.

He reached out and grabbed a fistful of the pig boy's red hair at the back of his head and dragged him off the bench toward the end of the table.

The boy managed to get his feet under him and stumble along, but Harry held his head down at waist level. He took Pigboy to the very end of the table and turned to face Mystery Girl. The Pigboy struggled trying to move Harry's hand, but he didn't have a hope. Pigboy pulled his wand out as soon as he realized it, and Harry took it from him.

"You have given insult to a Lady." Harry proclaimed in a loud voice. "You will apologize immediately."

"What? Get stuffed!" Pigboy said. His face was completely red, from embarrassment or rage Harry couldn't tell and didn't care. Pigboy was lucky he wasn't near Mother.

"APOLOGIZE!" Harry thundered in Pigboy's ear. The entire hall echoed with it.

"Sorry!" Pigboy squealed.

"SHE CAN'T HEAR YOU!" He thundered in his ear again.

"SORRY!" Pigboy squealed louder.

Harry bowed to Mystery Girl. "I am deeply sorry, Lady, for the state of tolerated behaviour within our House. Rest assured I will do my utmost to correct it in the coming months. Please enjoy the rest of your dinner."

Harry shifted his grip to the front of Pigboy's clothing, and lifted him into the air with one arm. He walked toward the double doors to the hall, then turned to address the crowd.

"I apologize for the disturbance, everyone. Please excuse me while I have a word with my Housemate."

Without letting him touch the floor, Harry bowed, then carried Pigboy out of the Great Hall.

When they were out of sight of the populace, Harry put Pigboy against the wall and looked him in the eyes. "If I ever catch you so much as thinking a negative thought in her direction, I will break every bone in your body. Do you understand me?"

Pigboy nodded. He looked on the verge of tears.

"Do you doubt that I could do so?"

Pigboy shook his head.

"Good. Learn this lesson and learn it well. Your behaviour shows the world the worth of your House. I will not tolerate improper or disrespectful behaviour from my family - which you are now part of, much to my shame. Pull your head out of your arse and grow up or I will shove your head in your arse and you will do no more growing at all. Are we clear?"

Pigboy nodded.

"Good." Harry let him down onto his feet slowly, and handed him his wand back. "I hope we can avoid having these chats in the future."

Harry turned and walked away, knowing Pigboy would likely curse him in the back. To his surprise, he didn't. Or he hadn't thought of it by the time Harry made it back to the Great Hall. As soon as he entered the Great Hall, the tumult of voices died to a whisper. He went over to Mystery Girl and bowed again.

"I'm sorry if my shouting startled you, Lady. Our Housemate assures me he has seen the error of his ways, but I will be watching him just in case."

She didn't say anything, she just looked up at him with an unreadable expression, so he did his best to smile reassuringly, then went to the top of the table where Pigboy had been sitting, and addressed Pigboy's cronies.

"I trust we won't have any more unseemly displays and that we can henceforth be proud to call ourselves Gryffindors?" He looked at each one in turn. None of them met his eyes.

Twin redheads who sat on the far side of the table caught his attention. "MacFusty, is it?"

Harry nodded. "According to Professor McGonagall we are all family now, so you can call me Duncan."

"Right, Duncan. Look, it's embarrassing, but -"

"Stupid you dragged out of here is our little brother -"

"So extended family notwithstanding -"

"He's family, and we'll have to revenge if you do -"

"Anything permanent to him. Most everyone -"

"Knows not to get on our bad sides -"

"But that said, Stupid takes that as protection -"

"And what he did and said was completely out of line -"

"So we'll let it slide this time." They both finished.

Harry nodded. "Understood, chaps. Now you understand me. I don't give a damn who you are or what your reputation is. I will not tolerate bullying by anyone in any form. If I have to call a blood feud on your house and murder every last member of your family in a ball of white fire, then that is what will happen. Get your brother under control or my next conversation will be with your Head of House. Are we in concord?"

The twins nodded slowly.

"Good. Have a nice dinner, gentlemen." Harry strode back to where he was sitting across from Dennis and sat back down.

"Sorry about that, Dennis. What was it you were saying?"

"Uh, it can wait." Dennis replied. He looked over Harry's shoulder.

Harry turned and found Professor McGonagall standing there. "Yes Professor?"

"Mister MacFusty, the headmaster would like to see you in his office once the announcements are done."

Harry nodded. "Good. I want a conversation with both of you about the appalling behaviour I see being ignored." He looked her in the eyes. She remained firm and stern, but he saw a glimmer of shame in her eyes before she walked away.

Harry didn't feel much like eating, so he talked a bit to Dennis - who had originally asked if he would pass the pumpkin juice. It turned out Dennis and his older brother Colin were both Gryffindors, and Dennis introduced Colin.

After about an hour, the remains of the Feast vanished, and Headmaster Dumbledore stood at the lectern in front of the Head Table. He announced that there was a list of proscribed items available at Mister Filch's office. There was also something about staying out of the forest and not going to Hogsmeade if you weren't third year or above. There wasn't going to be any Quidditch cup that year, and then their new Defense Against The Dark Arts professor showed up. He was a grizzled, one-eyed, one-legged ginger. A fake eye whirled about in its socket, comically large but also clearly functional.

Then the Headmaster explained why there wasn't going to be any Quidditch that year - the Ministry had decided to revive the Triwizard Tournament, and it was to take place at Hogwarts. Harry had read in Hogwarts: A History that it had been discontinued due to a large number of fatalities, and the Headmaster admitted as much. He also said that the Tournament would only be open to students who were of age, seventeen or older. He said something about an impartial judge deciding who competed, and then said that the delegations from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would arrive tomorrow at dinner.

After his extremely long-winded speech, he bid all the students goodnight so they could get a proper rest for the activities the next day.

Harry waited until the rest of the students had left the Great Hall, then fell in behind the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall.

When they arrived at the Headmaster's office - Harry was secretly thrilled to see it, since he'd read about it - the Headmaster sat behind his desk with his elbows on it, fingers steepled.

"Thank you Minerva, you may go." The Headmaster swivelled his eyes to her briefly. She nodded an acknowledgement and left the office. Then the Headmaster turned his disapproving look to Harry.

"I'm quite disappointed by your display, young man." He said.

Harry frowned. "You're _disappointed_ that I stopped one student _victimizing_ another. Is that what I'm hearing?"

"I'm disappointed that you didn't let Mister Weasley come to the decision on his own, Mister MacFusty. Everyone deserves a chance to do the right thing. Forgiveness is the path of the Light."

Nowhere had he read that Headmaster Dumbledore was no longer subject to Reality. It was a disturbing discovery.

"Yes, because in the last three years Mister Weasley has done _so much_ to _earn_ forgiveness. Forgive my mistake, Headmaster. I was unaware that he was ever so close to apologizing on his own and atoning for his transgressions."

The Headmaster lowered his chin and looked at Harry overtop of his half-moon spectacles. "Your sarcasm is unappreciated, Mister MacFusty."

"As is your inability to discern reality from fantasy, Headmaster."

The headmaster's grandfatherly mien fell away then, and he stood dramatically, an obvious attempt to intimidate Harry with a show of displeasure. "Now see here, Mister MacFusty. I am the Headmaster of this school, and I will have respect."

"You are the Headmaster of this school, much to my disappointment. You will not ever have MY respect until you EARN it, Headmaster. Now will we discuss the appalling lack of proper behaviour in the school or will I have to come back later?"

"You may not come back at all if you persist with your unbecoming attitude, Mister MacFusty."

"Is that a threat of expulsion, Headmaster?"

"It would be well justified." He looked down his nose at Harry, despite the fact he was shorter.

"It is also entirely your prerogative, Headmaster. However, you may be missing the consequences of that particular action. Would you like me to tell you what they are?"

"By all means proceed, Mister MacFusty."

"Three things will happen when you expel me from Hogwarts. The first is that I will leave Hogwarts, and Britain. I will go to a prestigious school on the continent and receive a quality education in a supportive and civilized environment. The second thing that will happen is that Hogwarts will stop receiving my money. The third thing that will happen is I will have years to plan how I will clean house when I take my seats on the Wizengamot. "

"The MacFusty's don't _have_ -" The Headmaster's eyes went wide, and his eyes locked onto Harry's. He felt the Headmaster stab against his mind as he tried to enter his thoughts. Harry focused his Will and _roared_ inside his mind.

The Headmaster flew backward over his chair and collapsed against the far wall.

Harry walked over to the Headmaster, but something caught his attention as he bent to pick the Headmaster up. It was a feeling of recognition... of belonging. It was the same exact kind of feeling he'd gotten from his Heir ring when he'd put it on. He closed his eyes and followed that feeling. It was on the floor, near the Headmaster's desk. He got down on his hands and knees to feel around, and his left hand touched something and rolled on it.

It was a wand. It sang to him that it belonged to him - to his family. He could feel a sense of _rightness_ surge within it, like it was happy to be in his hand.

"Why would _your_ wand belong to _me?_ " He asked the unconscious Headmaster. "Have you stolen this from my family?"

There was something else, too. The wand in his hand pulled at him, pulled him in a direction... toward a trunk at the back of the Headmaster's office. The feeling got stronger as he approached it, and when he opened the lid, that feeling of belonging he got from the wand was echoed by a pile of cloth. He picked the cloth up in his right hand, and the two things sent _Rightness_ vibrating through him.

"I'll have to ask Kneescythe about both of you, but later." He told the wand and cloth. He pulled his trunk out of his pocket and enlarged it, put both things in the second compartment, then put his trunk back in his pocket.

He flung the unconscious Headmaster over one shoulder and walked out of the office, careful to make sure he locked the door as he left.

  
  


* * *

  
  


She'd wondered what the hell was going on when McGonagall had walked past her on the way to her own office. Her expression was annoyed, and McGonagall hardly ever showed emotion - probably thought it made her impartial.

Duncan came down the spiral stairs a few minutes later, with an unconscious Headbastard thrown over his right shoulder. She so desperately wanted to just drop her spells and snog - NO - ask him what the hell happened. Did they fight? She would’ve loved to have seen that. POW, right in the kisser. Grandfatherly arsewipe.

She contented herself with following him instead, as she had intended to do in the first place. It was actually a bloody shame he had the Headbastard slung over him like that, the stupid white beard obscured Duncan's tight - STOP THINKING THAT. _Stupid_! On the other hand, it sort of accentuated just how _wide_ his shoulders were compared to his waist, and that put tingles in... She felt a rush of warmth between her loins. She reached down to check, and frowned at the dampness against her fingers.

She growled. She hated the way her body hijacked her thoughts and actions. Stupid!

He took the Headbastard from his office - just walked casually as the old man swayed on one shoulder - to the Hospital Wing. She hadn't realized that Duncan's hair was so wavy or so long. He wore it tied at the nape of his neck with a strip of dark leather. It looked soft, silky smooth. Her fingers tingled just to look at it.

"Goodness, what happened?!" Madam Pomfrey asked when he arrived. Duncan put his hand under the Headbastard - one hand - and lifted him up to flop his old bones on the bed in a supine position. She giggled at the stupid white beard as it flapped up and down while he bounced.

"Headmaster tried to Legillimens me." Duncan told Pomfrey. "I guess he isn't used to Legillimensing minors who have defenses."

That was it. She was getting every book on Occlumency she could find.

She hid in the corner by the entrance to the Infirmary, balanced by her hand on the stone wall, and peeked around the doorframe to watch. Hopefully the Headbastard woke up and she could see Duncan pop him in his lying, bigoted old mouth.

When did she start thinking of him as Duncan?

She sighed and let out a squeak when she realized he was two steps away from running into her face. She backed up down the hallway away from the Infirmary and flattened herself against the wall so he could pass by her.

For some reason, he didn't.

As soon as he passed the spot she'd been observing from, he stopped in his tracks. His eyes closed, and his face lifted slightly. He took a deep breath in through his nose, then turned and took another. He turned to face the spot she'd been hiding and took another deep breath in through his nose. He took a step toward her previous hiding spot, along with several short sniffs, until he was standing in the very spot she had been.

He put his nose against the wall and rubbed his face against it like a cat on a pantleg. His eyes were still closed, but he had a huge contented smile, and his face was flushed. He continued to rub himself, face, shoulders, and back against the spot she'd been standing. As he did so, she heard a soft, throbbing, ticking sound like a huge reptilian cat purr

She put both hands over her mouth to cover her laughter. She was covered by _Nonsonus_ , but she did it anyway.

After a long moment, he seemed to wake up. His eyes snapped open and he stood up straight and immediately looked around while his face went dark red from throat to hairline. He touched his cheeks and sniffed his fingers and shivered all over.

"What the clutch was _that_?" He whispered to himself.

Hermione pointed a finger at him triumphantly as she yelled "HA! That's what it's like, jerk! Not fun when your body betrays you, is it?!" Then she clapped both hands over her mouth and ran all the way back to her hideyhole.

She hated it, but it was his face, his hands, his body that she saw when she relieved the pressure. The sight of him bellowing in Weasley's ear gave her the most delicious shivers all up and down her spine.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Well brother mine, we're going to have to stop using the map." George told Fred sadly. He sat in the overstuffed wingchair beside the fireplace, perusing the map absently while they waited for Mister MacFusty to return from his visit with the Headmaster.

"What have you done now, worse half? It was working fine this morning." Fred frowned at his brother and shifted on the sofa so George could show him what he was looking at. George leaned over and pointed to a name with the tip of his wand. The name had just exited the Grand Staircase and was headed toward the Fat Lady, which meant that name would enter their very room in just a few moments. "I think you might be right, dear brother. I see the name, but the name can't be the name. Do maps get senile when they get old?"

"A case of wishful cartography?"

"Treasure map to buried things?"

"Ooo. Gallows humor is not your forte, Gred."

"I'm Forge today, you're Gred."

"It's after midnight, mate."

"Oh, yes. Quite right. Well, here he comes, let's see what this particular ghost looks like."

"I must admit, I was always a little curious."

The portrait door opened then to admit a tired-looking Duncan MacFusty. Fred looked at George, and George looked at Fred.

"Evening, gents." Duncan nodded at them.

"Mister MacFusty." Fred nodded back.

"Please, call me Duncan. We're all family now."

"Hear that Fred?"

"I did, George. Bit of a mistake made there, Duncan. Family are the preferred prank targets."

Duncan laughed. "I've two older sisters, gents, so you're up against serious competiton. I look forward to seeing what you come up with."

"Do mine ears deceive me, Fred? I could swear that sounded like a challenge."

"No no, I heard it too George. We'll have to give it some thought now."

Duncan smiled and bowed slightly at both of them in turn. "Good night, gentlemen, see you in the morning." He turned and went up the stairs to the dorm.

The twins watched him go, and turned to each other once he was out of earshot.

"Seems to me that ghost is a bit lacking in the transparency department." George said.

"Ooo, very nice George. Subtle and relevant. Well done."

"At least one of us should represent us well."

"And a knife in the back to follow. Rare form today, brother." Fred winced in mock pain.

"Inspired by an angry ghost, I suppose."

"He was quite angry with ickle Ronniekins, wasn't he."

"Beats the magic out of Mum's howlers too."

"Still, I suppose as angry ghosts who threaten to kill your entire family go, we really couldn't have asked for nicer."

"True, quite true. Despite my better judgement, I find myself beginning to like this ghost."

"You like anyone who invites our A game." Fred grinned.

"So do you." George grinned back.

"I must admit." Fred grinned at his brother, then looked down at the map. The section of tower that housed the fourth year Gryffindor boys had four stationary names. In the far corner was the name Ronald Bilius Weasley, then Seamus Finnegan, then Neville Longbottom, and finally, nestled into the bed closest to the door, was Harry James Potter.

"Mischief managed." He said, and tapped the map with his wand.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Oh come _on_ Milli. You can't stand there with a straight face and tell me that wasn't the _hottest_ thing you've ever seen in your life. I damn near pulled my pussy _off_ last night, I was going so hard."

Miilicent laughed. "No, of course it was. Especially the heat. It was like he was on fire the way the air distorted. That and the way his long hair whipped around... yeah, it was a good night."

"Exactly! I have to get him into a broomcloset as fast as possible. Stunned if I have to."

Millicent snorted. "Oh please. You go bat your eyes at him and you'll be in a broom closet before you can think to cast contraception. You're _pretty_ , Pansy. Boys _want_ to snog you. I'll have to resort to stuns and potions to get anything good."

"Good thing I am, too. I can't brew worth a rat's arse. I'll have to buy my doses from you. Besides, did you catch the way Greengrass was looking at him? I may be pretty, but I can't compete with her. She's fucking _gorgeous_ , and without a lick of makeup either, the bitch. I think it's probably more likely you and I will both end up stunning the blazes out of him and getting what we can while we can."

Hermione had just been walking to the library when she came across Parkinson and Bulstrode. She had ignored most of their conversation until she realized they were talking about Duncan. She hadn't really meant to follow them after that, but the subject matter was... of interest.

She reversed her course away from the dungeons and back toward the library, only to run into the same conversation when she got to the library. Romilda Vane, Mandy Brocklehurst, Faye Dunbar, and Cho Chang all sat around a table with their heads together in a kind of strategy meeting.

"Amortentia doesn't work instantly though, and it isn't any guarantee. It _can_ engender strong feelings of attachment over time, but it isn't _guaranteed_ to." Dunbar explained.

"Well what would you use then?"

"Infatuus kicks in immediately, but it lacks punch. I'd mix half and half with a lust draught. Invoke the hormones and get things moving while the infatuus makes it last longer and specific to you." Dunbar replied.

"I like the way you think." Chang said. "So we're in this together then, we all agree to brew and share the spoils?"

"I'm in." Brocklehurst said. "Let's draw up a list of ingredients and see who can get what."

"You realize this means we'll all be having sex in the same room with the same guy at the same time, right?" Vane pointed out.

"I'm not enthused by seeing you get fucked, Romilda." Dunbar looked at her, "But I'm not turned off by it either. The prize is definitely worth it."

Vane looked at her, surprised. "Well alright then. Anyone else not turned off by other women?"

"I'm not bothered by it." Chang admitted.

"Even if I find that it weirds me out in the moment, Dunbar's right. Getting some of that stud is worth a lot of weirded out." Brocklehurst added. "I'm interested to know why you're even here though Chang, when you have Cedric."

"I'm interested to know why you would even bother with that question when you saw what everyone else saw." Chang raised one eyebrow at Brocklehurst. "I would be here if he had punished Weasley while defending a real girl, but he did it for _Granger_ , for Merlin's sake. That's like getting the patron saints of generosity and hot fucking in the same package."

Murmurs of agreement circulated amongst the girls.

Hermione scowled at them.

It was one thing to talk about, but these girls were _actually planning_ to rape her Duncan. They'd be the first to rage and cry and demand justice if they were the victims, but here they were blithely calculating the best way to go about raping a boy. _Collaborating_ in raping a boy. Hermione discovered that it made her incredibly angry - even more angry than it did to hear them talk shit about her. She abandoned her self-imposed study period and set out to find Duncan.

She had visited the kitchens and the Great Hall before she realized she had no clue what Duncan liked to do and therefore no clue where he might be. Classes had been cancelled for the day in favor of a last-minute cleaning of the castle before the Triwizard guest schools arrived. Luckily, she saw Luna polishing torch sconces in the Great Hall.

"Luna." She whispered after she turned her _Nonsonus_ off.

To her annoyance, Luna betrayed no hint of startle or surprise. "Yes Hermione?" She replied.

"Where is poetry boy? I need to tell him something."

Luna's face lit up as she remembered. "Thank you for that." She grinned. "I think I heard him say something about helping Hagrid with some trees."

"Thanks. I'll explain later."

"Alright, thanks Hermione." Luna smiled and went back to polishing with renewed vigor.

She snuck her way outside and down to Hagrid's hut and was glad she had re-cast her _Nonsonus_ after talking to Luna. She poked her head inside the hut, but neither of them was there. Fang lay in his bed with his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. She went around the side of the hut, and nearly ran into Duncan. He wore runners and a pair of form-fitting bluejeans... _and nothing else_.

"UUuuunnnggh." She groaned as she drank the sight in.

His hair was unbound and splashed around his shoulders like wavy black silk. His shoulders were thick and blocky with muscle, and ran directly into both his lean, hard chest muscles and his back muscles that accentuated the natural V-shape of his torso. She could have washed her clothes on his taut stomach.

Her heart thundered in her ears as it raced, and she was instantly too hot. She could feel sweat bead on her upper lip, and a mixture of excitement, of manic energy and deep-seated hunger flooded her entire being.

He carried the felled tree he had on his left shoulder into the forest and tossed it casually onto a pile of other trees, then returned for another one. She watched him move the rest of the pile of topped and de-branched trees into the forest. He smiled when he was done and sat on a stump that one of the trees had obviously come from. He wiped his face with his T-shirt, and drank water from a plastic bottle.

She crept up behind him and cancelled her _Nonsonus_.

"Don't move." She commanded.

"Alright." He agreed with a smile.

She crept a little closer, close enough to whisper in his ear. He smelled of rain and wild grass and carried just a hint of toothpaste.

"Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, Romilda Vane, Faye Dunbar, Mandy Brocklehurst and Cho Chang are all planning to either stun you and then potion you or just potion you, but they're all planning to rape you. Be incredibly careful from now on."

She hadn't even noticed that her fingers fluttered over his shoulders, chest, and back until her fingertips burned with tingling. She snatched them back and clenched her fists behind her.

"I thought you should know. Don't get drugged. And put some clothes on, you're only making it worse."

She re-cast her _Nonsonus_ and backed away from him.

"Thank you." He whispered as he turned to look back over his shoulder, but then _that look_ took over his face. His eyes slid closed as he swivelled in his seat and sniffed the air. He rubbed his face and shoulders on the ground where she had stood, and purred the whole time he did it.

Then all at once snapped out of it and stood up. He slapped himself in the face twice. "Stop that! What the clutch _is that_?" He whispered to himself. He stood there with his hands clenched and breathed deeply.

Hermione felt sparks of energy shoot through her abdomen as she watched him. The yearning filled every pore in her skin until she could feel the air. Her every fiber strained toward him, like it yearned for his touch without her permission. The hollow hunger seemed permanently rooted in her pelvis and demanded action. _Immediate_ action.

She sighed as she strode quickly back to her hideyhole. She'd been doing that far too much recently. That _feeling_ though - the steel-under-velvet feeling of his body under her fingertips, the smell of his sweat as it clung to his hair... It washed all her thoughts away. Her plans, her desires - all were swept away by the rising tide of _need_ that thundered through her.

She cleaned up and showered when the hunger had finally abated some, and she was somewhat surprised to note that there was still time for some revision work before dinner and the Triwizard guests arrived. The shower definitely helped restore her even keel, and by the time she had re-dressed she felt mostly normal. Embarrassed and somewhat achey, but mostly normal.

Wait. Had she actually just gone and talked to Luna like they were friends?

Shit, she had. AND she'd felt Duncan up too. Dammit!

"Fuck you, puberty!" She yelled at the mirror. She hated that changes to her body that were _so_ _gross_ felt _so good_.

She decided revision could wait and instead sat down in her room with her new Occlumency books. Surprisingly, the meditation and Occlumency exercises actually helped settle her mind and gave her back more control. She felt better for having spent the two hours that way, and applied her three nondetections before she headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.

The two guest schools had arrived already by the time she made her way to her seat at the end of the Gryffindor table, but hadn't yet entered the castle, so she counted herself just in time. The Durmstrang boys were fairly impressive with their matching outfits and sparky little entrance dance, but they all looked angry. Arrogant, angry, and mean. She liked their firebreathing trick though, that was neat even if it was only a trick.

Her problems started when the Beauxbatons girls arrived. Their sighing delicate flower flirty little entrance raised her hackles immediately. Then as they all stood together, she realized there wasn't a single ugly girl among them. There wasn't even a _plain_ girl among them. They were all _at least_ pretty, with every last one of them on a continuum between pretty and gorgeous. That put a scowl on her face. She knew immediately who their number one target would be. No less than four of them stared at him already.

She realized then that the ache in her chest was shaped like Duncan, and she put her head down on her arms and cursed life in general. At least when he inevitably broke her heart just like Michael had, she was sure she would die from it and wouldn't have to worry about it happening again.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Harry was told he was required to sit with his House at dinner, as technically it was a Welcome Feast - though for visiting students. Harry didn't mind. He thought House unity was a good thing in general, even if the artificial division between the Houses and the resultant rivalry wasn't. He understood the mechanics of it, of course. Rivalry did inspire each side to greater action in some cases, but when it was artificial and forced, like as not the students were just angry. Beneficial, respectful rivalries could only be natural and spontaneous. The rest of the student populace suffered so that those few could succeed.

Harry was personally put out by it because he'd been looking forward to sitting and eating dinner with Luna. She'd expressed her desire to sit with him that afternoon before he'd gone to help Hagrid, and he had agreed wholeheartedly.

Sadly, getting to know his first friend better would have to wait. He really hoped he didn't have _an episode_ of whatever it was while he was spending time with her. That would be embarrassing. Not _quite_ as embarrassing as Argie's hot sauce incident, but pretty close. For that matter, he hoped he didn't have an episode while at dinner. It seemed to come on randomly, and at the most inopportune times. He had enjoyed the massage given by the invisible warning girl that afternoon, and then he'd crawled on his face like some kind of catnipped feline. He was just glad whoever invisible warning girl was, she hadn't laughed at him.

He had taken her warning seriously though. He had no desire to wake up in the bottom of a broomcloset as an anonymous father. He had already visited the kitchen and eaten a decent dinner, and had his own bottle of water with a resealable lid.

Harry enjoyed the lively, rhythmic staff-twirling of the Durmstrang students, but laughed when they made it look like they breathed fire. He was also glad he had the bed closest to the door of their dorm when he heard Ronald's voice declare his attraction for one of the Durmstrang students, Hector Crumb or something. The tone of Weasley's voice was far too excited to be platonic.

He thought the Beauxbatons girls' entry was interesting, but he didn't understand it at all. The sighing and bending backward displayed flexibility, but that was the only thing he could take from it. He smiled and nodded as some of the new students smiled at him, as politeness dictated. He looked forward to maybe making friends with some of them over the course of the year. The names of the Triwizard Champions would be announced at Halloween, and that's when whoever they were would mostly withdraw from the school in order to train, so he had two months to get to know them first.

The Headmaster was still recovering in the Infirmary, so Professor McGonagall gave the welcome speech, and the Durmstrang students sat at the Slytherin table, the Beauxbatons at the Ravenclaw table. Harry smiled and waved at Luna, who was clearly happy for the chance to meet some new people.

Once the Feast began, Harry moved to the very end of the Gryffindor table and sat next to Mystery Girl.

"I apologize for interrupting your meal, Lady, but you leave me with something of a quandry." She looked up at him with wide eyes, and he noted again their warm, rich colour. "Have I offered you any offense? Any insult?"

She shook her head slowly.

Harry smiled. "Good, I'm glad. I was afraid I had slighted you somehow, maybe by intruding on your privacy on the train. It worried me."

She smiled shyly, then deliberately covered her teeth with her lips. Had she learned it from the Goblins?

"Might I have the pleasure of your name?" He asked.

He thought he heard a tiny squeak from her then, but he couldn't be sure.

She cleared her throat and breathed heavily for a moment. "Granger. Hermione." She said.

"Hermione! Stony queen, most noble and most fair! Descend; be stone no more. Approach and strike all that look upon thee with marvel." He smiled at her.

"You've read it?" She asked. Her disbelief was plain.

Harry nodded. "My older sisters went to muggle school and..." He could feel heat in his cheeks. Part of him didn't want to say, but he wanted to be a friend, so he pushed ahead despite the embarrassment. "They made me learn it and dress up to act parts out because Darcy was in a play. I think they just liked making me dress up in weird costumes."

She put her hand in front of her mouth and giggled, and her eyes lit up as she did. It was a wondrous thing to behold.

"I'd like to see that." She said, still smiling behind her hand.

He leaned forward conspiratorially. "Don't tell my sisters that, they'll do it again just for you - well, and their own amusement, of course." He grinned.

Her eyes flicked over his shoulder toward the other end of the table before they found his again, and then dropped to the tabletop. "Why are you being nice to me?" She asked in a small voice.

"I'm not _being nice_ to you, Lady Granger. I'm just being _me_ to you. I don't have any ulterior motive. I don't want anything from you, except maybe your company. Maybe even friendship, if it's not too much to ask. The way you've been treated is appalling and I won't stand for it. If that seems like being nice to you, then I'll accept being called nice."

She didn't say anything else. She didn't have to. Her eyes filled and she looked away. His instincts wanted him to wrap his arms around her and hold her close, but he knew that would be rude, presumptuous, and counterproductive. Friendships weren't built in a day.

"I'm sorry." He said softly. "I didn't come to make you cry. Thanks for telling me your name. Is it alright if I call you Hermione, my queen?"

She looked back at him, impish mischief dancing behind her unshed tears. "You can call me your queen any time, my loyal subject."

Harry chuckled. "Deal."

  
  



	5. Chapter 5

  
  


He popped a lemon drop in his mouth and leaned back in his chair. He had reacted badly to discovering Harry in his office, right in front of him, and his misstep had cost him dearly. Not only had his attempt at Legilimens tipped his hand and garnered Harry's enmity, it had also cost him The Elder Wand. He had a backup wand of course, but he'd been using the Elder Wand so long he felt naked without it.

The question was, how could he get it back? He would have to disarm Harry in order for it to obey him again, but how to get Harry to pull the wand on him? The boy never pulled out a wand if he wasn't in class. Careful observation and subtly interviewing his associates confirmed it. If he asked for the wand back would the boy give it to him willingly? When he pulled it out he could disarm the boy as he did so. He would be more inclined to simply steal the killing blow from Tom when their inevitable confrontation took place, but he already knew he could not. It would be Tom who killed the boy. That would give Tom the Elder Wand, and that simply would not do. It was imperative he reclaim it. Although... if Harry didn't have the wand with him when he went to Tom, all Albus would have to do was kill Tom after he killed the boy – the very thing he had worked all these years for anyway. Even so, it galled to _not_ have possession of the wand. No, he wanted the wand now.

How to procure the thing if the boy refused to return it though? If it came to it, he could _Imperius_ the boy to get him to pull the wand out. It was a distasteful thing, but the Greater Good must be served. He would have to alter the boy's memory of the event as well. It would be impossible to guide the boy to suicide now, but it may be possible to misguide him into rushing toward Tom unprepared. That would amount to close enough to suicide to suit the Greater Good.

He had time though... if he waited until Harry's group of friends had solidified they might provide an alternate means of persuasion - especially if he found a love. That would be perfect, the obviously chivalric boy would do anything for a love. Yes, that would be best. He would wait. There was no chance for his original plan to succeed, but stoking the boy like a cannon and pointing him at Tom would be far quicker. He would use the time to refine the plan to get the Elder Wand back. Let the little shit enjoy his fattening, and rush toward the butcher's wand.

He popped another Lemon Drop into his mouth and relaxed some, his course set. It was a shame the Weasley boy had turned out to be such a disappointment, he'd had such high hopes for his original plan. Ronald's unique blend of jealousy and pride and stupidity and laziness would have ensured Harry was ready and malleable.

He sighed as he remembered that morning's discussion with the boy. Three short years had been all it took for Ronald to solidify into a useless lump. He was so out of his depth he couldn't even rein his shame and fear in enough to concoct a decent revenge. If the idea he'd given the idiot played out as he suspected it would, the resultant isolation Harry would face would be an excellent first step. Step Two would isolate him further, after another month for Step One's effects to simmer. When the Champions were chosen, Harry Potter would be seen as a cheater, a gloryhound, and a liar. With luck, that might cut him off from the populace at large and reveal who his true friends - and possibly love interests - were.

He longed for the days when you could simply make it look like an accident and the DMLE couldn't prove otherwise. It made him glad Gellert wasn't alive to see it, Albus might just have joined him if he'd asked at this point.

"One more thing to do." He told himself. "One last great deed, and my legacy will be secure."

It was sad that Harry Potter had to die. It was sad that whoever had the misfortune to capture his heart would suffer worse than death before death, but the Greater Good must be served.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Heir Longbottom? May I occupy a moment of your time?" Duncan's voice whispered from the next bed over.

Neville sat up and opened the curtains. "Duncan, we did this already, please call me Nev. We're mates, yeah?" Neville grinned internally at that. It had only been a week and a half since they'd talked the first time, but Duncan was such a good guy it felt like they'd known each other for years.

"Yeah I know, but it's official House stuff I need your help with. I'm completely out of my depth with this." He held up a scroll.

"I don't think you'd be out of your depth at the bottom of the ocean, but I'll help if I can." Neville paused to peek through the other curtains at the other two dorm mates, but they were both asleep. He turned back to Duncan. "I was going to suggest you cast a privacy shell around us for House business, but you already did, didn't you?"

Duncan just grinned back at him.

"Alright, what can I help with?" Neville grinned back.

Duncan handed him the scroll, and he unrolled it. He felt his face go slack and his eyes wide as he read it. "Duncan! This is a betrothal agreement to _DAPHNE GREENGRASS_!"

"I know." Duncan said with anguish in his voice. "What do I do with it?"

"What do you mean, 'what do I do with it'? She's the most beautiful girl in all of Britain, Duncan! You sign it, you marry her, and you have lots and lots of sex forever until you die from it."

Duncan laughed. "Nev, that's what _YOU_ would do with it."

"Damn straight it is. Sadly, it's clear she fancies you."

"What do I do about it though? I mean, I've never spoken a single word to her, Nev. Not a single word. How could I possibly know even who she is, let alone whether or not I _like_ her?"

"You don't know about betrothal contracts?" He asked.

Duncan shook his head. "No, this is the first I've ever heard of them. I mean, I was taught just about everything else about House business, from manners to duels and interactions between Houses, but... I guess they didn't plan on me getting one of those before Christmas. Fergus's note attached to it just said 'Good Luck'."

"That's.. a bit odd, since your Father is Head of House, and betrothal contracts are negotiations between Houses - taken care of by Heads. Typically the wants of the people getting betrothed are not even considered because they're not relevant. Betrothal contracts are essentially contracts used to secure alliances, trade agreements, or to join Houses for protection. They weren't ever about two people falling in love."

Duncan's face twisted and he recoiled. "That's horrible!" He spat. "Parents would make their children get married to someone they didn't even know?!"

He nodded. "Yes, but don't forget that only a few Houses even use these anymore. They were popular in times of war or famine, when joining two Houses would mean the survival of both. Two people would sacrifice their happiness for the lives of their whole families."

Duncan's face relaxed immediately. "Oh." He said. "Yes, I suppose that does make sense. I don't think that's what she's after though."

"No, likely not. Actually, it's a very unsurprisingly Slytherin thing to do if you think about it. You're insanely popular with the ladies - no, don't try to deny it, I see how they look at you. You are, end of argument. Daphne is not a dumb girl. She can also see that, so she does this -" He held up the scroll, "In order to bypass the crowd and go straight to winning the prize they're all after - namely you. Tactically, it's genius. Unfortunately, if she had bothered to speak to you even once, she'd have known it was a wasted effort."

Duncan sighed. "Is there a way to say 'no thank you' in an extremely polite, please come talk to me kind of way?"

"Yes, actually."

Duncan brightened. "Really?"

Neville had to grin. "Just reply to Lord Greengrass that your House doesn't practice betrothal contracts. Assure him that no contracts from any party will be entertained, and let him know that you are open to courting any interested parties personally. That would force him to tell Daphne that she has to meet you and get to know you and do the work herself. It would put all of them on the same even footing, contractually speaking."

"You're genius, Nev! Thank you, Heir Longbottom, for your sage advice." Duncan grinned at him.

"Grew up having this stuff drilled into my head by Gran." He shrugged. "Just glad to be able to help. I could help you draft your reply if you want, too."

"That would be aces Nev, thanks... There is one other thing I'd like your opinion on, but it's personal, not House related."

"Any time, of course." He replied.

"Weasley. He's been quiet the last week and a half since I publically humiliated him. I just want your opinion on whether you think he's actually learned the lesson and is going to grow up and be a decent man or if you think he's more likely to harbor a grudge and is really just staying quiet to plan some kind of revenge."

Neville snorted. "Oh revenge, definitely. I wouldn't worry about it though."

"Why not?" Duncan frowned.

"Well, it's Ron. Whatever he plans will be cruel, but honestly he's not that smart. You'll probably see it coming a long way off. Besides, you've got me and Luna to watch your back." He smiled.

Duncan grinned back. "Thanks, Nev. That means a lot to me. G'night."

"Us too, mate. G'night."

Neville closed his curtains and rolled on his side in abject despair. Duncan was a good mate, but the woman of Neville's dreams - often literally - had offered herself to him permanently, and instead of realizing the gift he'd been given, Dunc had asked him how to get out of it. He could only imagine the look of icy disdain that would put on her face when she found out that she would have to lower herself to being among the rest of the girls. It simultaneously gave him a thrill of vicarious laughter at her expense, made him unbearably sad, and turned him on no end.

He took out the picture of Daphne he kept under his pillow and looked at it. It was one of Colin's better pictures, it captured the sun on her face, the breeze in her waterfall of golden hair, and the haughtiness in her eyes.

Not for the first time he wondered what she would say to the number of times he'd called her name in the throes of solitary passion.

He made sure his curtains were shut, and cast a sound barrier around him.

In that night's fantasy, he made her beg for him before he satisfied her. He found it to be a much hotter fantasy, and it sparked something inside him.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Neville helped him draft his reply letter to Lord Greengrass and made sure he used all the proper terminology so he didn't sound like what he actually was - a boy ignorant of the subtleties of polite society. A huge weight lifted off his shoulders once that was finished, and he put the letter aside to read again later that day and make sure it said what he wanted it to say.

He quite liked hanging out with Neville. Neville was far smarter than he let on, and had no compunctions about letting him know when he was being stupid. He liked that a lot. As much as he tried _not_ to be stupid, he failed. His continued random _episodes_ proved that, if nothing else. He still had no bloody idea what caused them, but thankfully they only seemed to happen when nobody else was around - at least so far.

He and Neville ate most of their meals at the Ravenclaw table while they talked with Luna. Neville found Luna's eccentricity a little difficult to deal with, but he warmed to her over time, even if he didn't quite understand her.

Harry and Neville had Herbology - Neville's favorite class - first period, so they wished Luna a good day and headed down to the greenhouses after breakfast.

"Have you ever thought you might have been better off as a Hufflepuff, Nev?" He asked as they walked toward the greenhouses.

Neville looked at him. "Honestly, yeah. I wouldn't have had to be too cowardly to do anything about Ron myself while living in the home of the brave. Still quite ashamed about that."

"Huh. I was thinking sort of the same thing, really. It seems like a relaxed place to be, and we wouldn't have had to be family with Ronald."

Neville looked ahead at some of the Hufflepuffs who were also headed to the greenhouse for their shared class. "Wouldn't have anything to do with any of the generously endowed ladies from Hufflepuff, would it?"

Harry laughed. "Well no, actually, but now that you mention it... I'm not immune to their charms."

Neville laughed back at him. "That is the most polite way I have ever heard anyone refer to breasts, Dunc. I'm going to steal that, just so you know."

"You're welcome! Best of luck mate, glad to help." He grinned.

Two of those very same charming ladies ambushed him just inside the greenhouse.

Susan and Hannah stood on either side of the greenhouse door and stepped in front of him when he and Neville entered.

"Might we have a word, Duncan?" Susan asked. He shot Neville a look that said 'Help!', but Neville cocked his head to one side and looked at him through raised eyebrows. He might as well have painted "I TOLD YOU SO" on his forehead. No help forthcoming there.

He sighed internally and outwardly smiled. "Of course, ladies. After you."

He followed Susan and Hannah around the side of the greenhouse and out of sight of the rest of the students.

"If I could ask you ladies to please keep your hands where I could see them, I would appreciate that very much." He asked before they had a chance to say anything.

"Uh... alright. That's a little odd." Hannah frowned.

"Yeah, what's that about, Duncan?" Susan also frowned.

"I apologize for the necessity of my asking, but I've been informed there are several plots to stun and potion me. Your names were not among the conspirators, but prudence dictates I take caution."

" _What_?!" Susan's jaw dropped.

"That's _horrible!_ " Hannah said, her face scrunched in disgust.

"No-one has tried anything yet thankfully, but I'm hoping the more people I tell that I know about it, the less likely it becomes."

"If anyone does try anything like that, you come tell me immediately, my Aunt is head of the DMLE and I can have her here to investigate in minutes." Susan said angrily.

"Really? You'd do that for me?" He asked, surprised.

"Of course! For anyone, really. It's bloody illegal." Susan scowled.

"Well thank you, I appreciate it even more knowing that it isn't a personal favor."

"Actually, it's a bit ironic, but personal favours are what we wanted to talk to you about." Hannah said as her cheeks turned light pink.

He smiled. He hoped it wasn't more undeserved attention. He liked Hannah and Sue, but he wasn't sure why he was getting all the attention he was, despite what Neville had said. "Please continue." He prompted.

"Well..." Hannah took a deep breath, and he locked his eyes on hers, lest they be pulled downward by her charms. "We were wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with us next weekend? If you don't have a date already?"

“Hm.” He muttered as he thought about it. "Before I say yes or no, could you both answer a couple of questions I have?"

They both nodded.

"Okay good." He took a deep breath and let it out. "I've never been on a date before, but I have older sisters who have. As I understand it... isn't a date supposed to be between two people? Isn't the point for them to get to know each other better?"

Susan nodded and blushed slightly. "Usually."

"I've never been on one before either, but that's what I think too. Susan and I are best friends, and we agreed we wouldn't mind sharing if you already had things to do and didn't have time to go with us individually." Hannah explained.

"Oh. That was very considerate of you both, thank you. Next question: Doesn't it being a 'date' carry underlying... romantic expectations?"

Both Susan and Hannah blushed and looked away, but Susan answered anyway. "Yes... that was sort of why we wanted it to be one."

"Oh." He struggled for a moment then to get the thought of both of them naked out of his head. He cleared his throat to cover it. "Well then let me make a counter-proposal. You are the first to ask, and since I don't really know either of you very well, I would love to go with you individually and spend the day getting to know you better. After that if either of you still wants to go on a... date... we can talk about that later? It's just... you may not want any romantic expectations involved after you get to know me better. Either way, I would love to have more friends even if you don't want any dating. Is that sensible to you?"

Susan nodded. "I'd like that. You should know I probably won't change my mind about the date."

Hannah nodded at Susan's statement as well. "It's not the snogfest I was hoping for, but I'll take it."

He could feel heat rising into his face. "Umm... you ladies can decide between yourselves who gets which day, then let me know when you'd like to go. I've never been to Hogsmeade either, so I don't really know what to do there."

"That makes even more sense then," Susan said, "Any girl you take on a date there will expect you to have a plan of action, and if you've never been, you really can't, so we'll show you around. Then when you take us on our dates we can leave it to you."

"Be sure to take notes." Hannah winked at him.

He smiled the best he could and bowed slightly with his arm out to allow them to precede him to the greenhouse.

Susan and Hannah went to their spots to get ready for class, and Neville leaned over to whisper to him.

"What was that about?"

Harry just hung his head. "You were right, I apologize for scoffing. Apparently, against all reason, I appear to be popular with the ladies." He whispered back. "They both asked me to Hogsmeade next weekend."

"What, together?"

"One each day."

"Was going to say, that sounds like a really good weekend."

"Going to have to scrub my brain with soap now, thanks Nev."

"What are friends for?" Neville grinned at him cheekily.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Harry held his eyes shut, as he'd been instructed. "Where are we going, Luna?"

"if I tell you it won't be a surprise, will it?" She answered. She led him by the hand, and he could hear they walked through various hallways for ten minutes or so. They were in a large open space when she told him to sit down and open his eyes.

He opened his eyes, and they were back in the Great Hall.

"Luna... this is where we started." He looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

"I know," She smiled a sheepish little smile at him, " I just wanted to hold your hand for a while."

He laughed and gave her a hug. "I appreciate the prank Luna, but you could just ask you know."

She wrinkled her nose. "That wouldn't be as much fun."

"Never change, Luna."

"I have to, clothes get smelly after a few days."

"That's why I prefer nudity."

Luna's eyebrows shot up and her cheeks tinged pink.

"And _that_ would be a win for me." Harry grinned and wrote a 1 in the air with his finger.

Luna smiled back at him again. "Losing is fun too sometimes."

"You don't have to tell me, I've lost every time until today."

"And you've had fun doing it. That's the important part. Anyway, I also wanted to talk to you about Hermione -" She stopped talking when he put up his hand.

"Just going to make sure she's not standing next to you while we're talking about her." He whispered in Luna's ear.

She nodded, and Harry closed his eyes to concentrate. He roused his blood and felt the swirl of power through him as he began to Resonate. He focused on pushing the magic into his eyes, then opened them again.

"Oh wow!" Luna breathed in an awed tone of voice.

He scanned the Great Hall and didn't see any distortions - until he looked behind him. There was a Hermione-shaped warp on the bench next to him.

"Good evening, my queen." He said with a smile. The warp shot off the bench and ran straight out of the Great Hall. He couldn't smell or hear any clue she was there.

He let the magic drain from his eyes and looked back at Luna. "Good thing I checked. You were saying?"

"How did you do that?" She was still looking at his eyes.

"Do you promise not to tell anyone else?"

"I promise." She nodded eagerly.

"My mother is a dragon."

"Your father is the strangest, bravest man I've never met."

Harry laughed. "I would love to tell you the entire story, Luna. I hate that I have to keep it from you, but until you can shield your mind from invasion I just can't."

"Friends who give homework are the best!" She grinned at him. The hunger in her eyes made him think she just didn't like knowing there were secrets she didn't know.

"So, about Hermione?"

"Right. Not this weekend - this weekend is your big Hufflepuff dating weekend - but _next_ weekend, the seventeenth and eighteenth I want to find a room and prepare a small party for Hermione because her birthday is on the nineteenth."

Harry grinned. "She is our light in the darkness."

Luna grinned back at him.

"Okay, so we should be looking for a place to hold it. Looking for a decent gift also gives me a mission in Hogsmeade. Will you be there this weekend as well?"

"To do a bit of shopping, yes. I already have her gift though."

"Brilliant." He grinned at her. "Any ideas what she might like?"

"Your naked body."

"Aaand that's you back to winning." He said as he felt a blush creep up his neck.

"Well she would."

"Okay okay, that's enough. I don't want to make any flamingoes jealous."

Luna just grinned at him. "You're cute when you blush."

He cleared his throat, grabbed the conversation and wrenched it back on course. "So, seriously, no ideas then?"

Luna tilted her head to the side. "Hmmm... Most girls like jewelry...Hermione has always been in the number one spot here though, ever since my first year, and she's far, _far_ ahead. Maybe she'd like a book on advanced magic? Something she can't get from the library? I'm not sure."

"Thanks, Luna. That's more than I had to go on. This party is going to be just you and me, isn't it. She doesn't talk to anyone else."

"There is one other person, a House Elf named Lammy. I overheard Lammy talking to other Elves about her when I was in the kitchens last year."

"Nice. Okay, so three people. That's not bad. Have you already talked to Lammy?"

Luna shook her head. "Not yet. I wanted to tell you first so you could do your shopping."

Harry nodded. "Thanks Luna, I appreciate-" He stopped when Luna smiled and waved at one of the Beauxbatons ladies. She noticed, and came to sit beside Luna.

"Bon soir, Luna." She said with a smile. "Qui est l'homme?"

Harry smiled. "Duncan MacFusty, a votre service, mademoiselle."

"Tu parles francais?" She asked, surprised.

"Pas recemment, comme personne d'autre." He looked back to Luna. "I'll go talk to Lammy and let you chat with your friend." He looked back to the newcomer. "C'est un plaisir de vous recontrer, mademoiselle. S'il vous plait profiter de votre sejour."

He stood and bowed to the two ladies before he walked from the Hall.

  
  


* * *

  
  


That was wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! How the hell did he know she was there?! She had all three nondetections on! He had done something to his eyes though, that might have had something to do with it. Terrifyingly vibrant green with vertical pupil slits. It had made him look like a lizard wearing a Duncan suit.

She shivered at the thought, and decided to go to the library. The only different thing had been his eyes, so maybe he'd learned to partially transfigure himself? If so... what animal's eyes could see through Disillusionment?

She gnawed her thumb as she walked briskly into the Magical creatures section and pulled books from shelves. She started with the best-looking candidate, 'Catalogue of Creatures and their abilities'.

Her thumb started aching after half an hour or so, and she realized she still chewed on it.

It took a further two hours, but by eliminating any non-reptilian and non-feline creatures, she managed to reduce the list of in-depth subjects to four. The book on Zouwu said that Disillusionment was an effective technique for hunting them, so she crossed that off her list immediately. The research said Kneazles were known to alert their owners to Disillusioned people, but also said they were ineffective at hunting Mokes, so their ability to detect Disillusioned people was probably down to superior smell and hearing. Mokes, while able to Disillusion themselves, were best hunted during mating season, when they were all visible. That meant they couldn't see each other in order to mate, so it likely wasn't Mokes either.

She sighed in frustration and pulled the last book toward her, 'Draggons Moste Dangerouse'

"Antipodean Opal Eye Dragons are well known to see through all Disillusionment spells." She read, "So when hunting these creatures it is well advised to use physical camouflage measures."

Well, she thought, that's a definite yes. That couldn't be what Duncan was using though, as his eyes had not turned the well-known colourful swirls that identified the Antipodean Opaleye. Two other breeds were known to see through Disillusionment, the Hungarian Horntail and the Hebridean Black. She would have loved to narrow it down to a specific species, but the upshot was that Duncan could transfigure his eyes into dragon eyes and see through Disillusionment.

That was not okay.

It wasn't even really that he could see her. She would know now to run when he did the dragon eyes thing. No, what _really_ made her mad was the fact that he could do it and _she couldn't_.

She got up and paced back and forth. Her thumb started to hurt again and realized she had resumed chewing on it. She switched thumbs as her thoughts raced back and forth through her head like her feet raced back and forth on the floor. She _HAD_ to learn that. The trouble with it was that she was nearly finished the entire curriculum of Hogwarts, and partial self-transfiguration was _not_ part of the curriculum. That meant she would have to learn it from Duncan, but that meant she would have to stop following Duncan – No, she admitted in a burst of self-honesty, she didn't follow him. She stalked him. She was a stalker. She sighed again. She would have to stop _stalking_ Duncan and _talk_ to him. Visibly. Face to face. That meant putting up with her stupid body distracting her while she tried to learn important things.

What to do, what to do?

It wasn't that she didn't want to spend time alone with Duncan sharing knowledge. Quite the opposite. He seemed willing to put up with her. She wasn't entirely sure how to react to that. Should she be formal like he was? Should she treat him like a friend? HA! She had no clue how to treat him like a friend in any case. If she let her guard down she might start feeling him up again. She supposed she could treat him like a lover, he'd been in her fantasies enough. It wouldn't really matter amyway, she'd fuck that up immediately just like everything else - not that he could ever be _attracted_ to her bloody bird's nest and donkey face. Sometimes she was fine with how she looked and accepted it as reality and just got on with it. Sometimes though, an increasingly _often_ sometimes, her chest ached and her heart squeezed and _need_ filled her every cell. Need to be wanted, need to be looked at... to be… something. Something she couldn’t identify.

Stupid puberty shit.

"Hey Dunc, want to go to an empty room and teach me your dragon eyes thing?" She asked the bookshelves. It sounded terrible. Needy and forced and incredibly _not_ casual. Not that it _should_ be casual. You were casual with _friends_ and she didn't have any. Had never had any. If she made a formal request would that be better? Could she do that at all even? He treated her like she was a Lady, but she absolutely wasn't. Just a filthy mudblood with the poise and nobility of a flobberworm who was desperate to learn what he knew.

She sighed. Now both her thumbs hurt.

"There's no help for it, bushybeaver. You need what he has, you have to go get it. No matter how embarrassing it is, no matter how much you have to run away and masturbate afterward. You need it. Go get it."

She sighed again, her path forward decided. She cleaned up and replaced the books on the shelves and put her list away. She did _not_ look forward to her next conversation with Duncan, even though her heart raced and her palms got clammy when she thought about it. Maybe _because_ her heart raced and her palms got clammy.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Fucking MacFusty.

Not bad enough he'd fucking humiliated him in front of the entire school population, no. He might have even been able to forgive that if that same very thing hadn't also then procured MacFusty the eyes of every single decent female in two fucking schools. Even his own girlfriend had dumped him so she could go sniffing after fucking MacFusty. Of course she said it was because he was a horrible person, but that never bothered her before. Besides, he saw how she looked at him. Her face practically screamed how wet she was for him.

It was alright though, his chat with the Headmaster had reminded him that MacFusty wasn't king shit. He was Ronald Bilius fucking Weasley. He ruled the school long before unnaturally strong MacArselick showed up. His stomach went weak when he remembered those shimmering green eyes boring into his. He still didn't doubt the green-eyed twat could break every bone he owned, but he was a _wizard_. His _mind_ was his weapon, and his wand of course.

After he'd realized he could get revenge for what MacFucker had done to him and his reputation, it had been as simple as a talk with the twins. They were only too happy to tell him about the prank on MacFucker they had already planned. He might have enjoyed the prank as they had planned it if he didn't burn with hatred every time he saw the self-righteous bastard.

Fred and George were almost ready to put their prank in place, and that was why he snuck into the medical wing in the middle of the night. He would make a small modification to their prank, one that would increase his personal enjoyment of the prank immensely.

He took all the shortcuts the twins had taught him over the years, and made it to the Infirmary without anyone the wiser. He was even luckier there wasn't anyone in the recovery beds. He snuck into the side room filled with locked cabinets, and had to risk a small _Lumos_ in order to see through the glass cabinet doors to find what he was after.

Third cabinet from the entryway, he struck gold. It was even a huge jar! Perfect amount for what he had in mind. He grinned to himself and took a deep breath in and out. He focused all his concentration on the spell in his mind, and with a stylish flourish of his wand, said " _Alohamora_."

The cabinet doors clicked as they unlocked, and he stopped himself from whooping with joy. He'd DONE it! Blasted tricky spell bowed before the might of Ronald bloody Weasley!

The jar was heavier than he expected, so he put his wand in his mouth and used both hands to pull it out of the cabinet. He cradled it in the crook of one arm like a baby, then closed the cabinet doors.

" _Nox_." He whispered. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light again before he attempted to move, as he would be in _serious_ trouble if he tripped and landed on the jar.

He crept quietly back the way he'd come and grinned openly as he passed through the portal into the common room. The banked fire in the fireplace threw just enough light to show him that he stood alone in the room. He set the jar down in the far corner, and crept up the stairs into Fred and George's room.

It took far too long for him to remove the core of their prank, but thankfully they'd explained how it worked, or it would have gone off in his face. When it finally came free, he made his way back to the common room.

He paused to put dragonhide gloves on, but It only took a few minutes to replace the filling Fred and George had prepared. He had to stop himself from giggling as he carefully poured the thick, syrupy, almost clotted liquid into their prepared container. He sighed with relief when the dangerous bit was done, and allowed himself a giggle then.

"Fuck you, MacLoser." He whispered.

He left the dragonhide gloves on as he carried the modified prank core back up to Fred and George's room. It was desperately fiddly to get the thing installed back into the prank casing properly with the gloves on, but he couldn't afford to _not_ have the gloves on.

Finally, the thing was re-assembled and ready to go.

He stripped the gloves off when he returned to the common room, then spent another twenty minutes returning the jar to the medical wing and the gloves to the greenhouse before he was able to at last crawl into bed. He would be tired tomorrow and it would suck, but he couldn't wait to see MacFucker's face when that prank went off. With any luck it would go everywhere, and he'd be blamed for it. Hopefully it would spray around his little gaggle of french birds as well. Serve them right for turning him down and laughing at him. With a little smile on his face, Ronald relaxed and fell into sleep.

  
  


* * *

  
  


She used the brush on her hair while it was still wet, it was the only way to make it tangle-free and still have as little frizz as possible. The drying charm worked a great deal better than a towel as well, but the end result was the same as it always was. Her hair didn't want to succumb to gravity, and it refused to be smooth or silky.

Duncan took the brush from her fingers and put it on the dresser. He gently swept her hair to one side and planted tiny burning kisses on her neck while his hands slid around her body, across her ribs, down her stomach to her thighs. He knew where she wanted his fingers and teased her by not giving it to her. He kissed up the side of her neck, behind her ear, then sucked on her earlobe. She felt her skin grow hypersensitive while her stomach began to tingle, then the tingles were suffused with a violent, needy warmth that spread downward into her nethers.

He put one hand on her stomach and the other on the back of her neck, and gently bent her over until both her hands were on the dresser. He picked up the hair brush and ran the smooth, cool back of it in circles over the cheeks of her behind. As the first ringing SMACK of the hair brush impacted her right cheek, she was jolted from the fantasy and realized she'd just spanked herself with her hair brush.

She threw it on the dresser as she stood up straight to look at herself in the mirror.

"For fuck's sake, Hermione." She sighed. "You have to go and talk to him. You have to. Get yourself together. He could be another Michael for all you know."

“That's exactly what you're afraid of.” Her inner honesty replied.

She dried her body off and dressed, then applied her nondetections and made her way to the Great Hall. She slid immediately to the side against the wall as the gathered crowd of students ate breakfast and talked amongst themselves. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply against the sudden wave of panic that washed over her.

"Dragon eyes." She whispered to herself. "You could have dragon eyes. See through Disillusionment. You're fine. Even if he doesn't like you Duncan wouldn't make fun of you. You're fine. Go over to the table and wait for him." She tried desperately to ignore the part of her brain that reminded her she'd thought the same of Michael.

She could see he was not yet present at the table, so she went and sat in her usual place. There was a box on the table up from her position, where Duncan and Neville usually sat when they weren't with Luna. A lot of people came to the table to look at the box and then left again. She stood on the bench to look at it, and saw there was a single word on the top: Duncan.

Right. So that would bear watching. She looked around at the faces in the Great Hall carefully as she tried to determine who had sent it.

Daphne Greengrass, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Pansy Parkinson, Romilda Vane, and Lavender Brown all seemed to be watching the box like a hawk, but none of them seemed to be excited about it. In fact, they all seemed extremely put out, and glared at each other when they thought they could get away with it.

Hmph. As if stuck-up bitches like them had a chance with her Duncan.

As though thinking of him had summoned him, Duncan strolled into the Great Hall beside Neville. Every last girl who'd been eyeing the box immediately stood and attempted nonchalance as she strode toward the Gryffindor table where Duncan stood. She saw them coming and ran around to Duncan's side of the table to stand next to him. She stood on her tiptoes to whisper at his ear, but Neville drowned her out.

"And _you_ don't think you're popular with the Ladies. Oblivious, they call that." Neville grinned at Duncan.

"Yes, thanks for hammering that home so very often, Nev. I'd be so much more oblivious without you." He bowed at Neville.

Somehow, hearing extremely polite sarcasm from Duncan made her chest feel warm. It made her fingers ache to run them through his hair and pull him into a cuddle. She quashed the feeling down where it belonged. She had Dragon Eyes to see through first.

By the time she had raised herself on her tiptoes to whisper at him again, the crowd of girls had already formed around Duncan, and she was drowned out again.

"Morning, Duncan!" Susan said with a smile.

"Morning, Susan." He smiled back.

"You going to open that, or make us wait around on tenterhooks for you to pull your finger out?" Pansy demanded.

Duncan turned around and smiled at her. "Good morning, Heir Parkinson." He saw the assembled crowd of girls, and his eyebrows rose. "Well... sorry to keep you all waiting, guess I should pull my finger out then."

Susan and Hannah both chuckled.

Duncan tried to lift the lid of the box, only to find that the front of the box was part of the lid and hinged at the back. He shifted his grip and tried again, and the top and front of the box lifted smoothly up and fell backward onto the table. As soon as the lid touched the table, a pie shell filled with thick, syrupy yellowish-green launched itself out of the box right at Duncan's face.

She tried to push him out of the way, but Duncan was just far too solid for her to move like that. Instead, she caught a flash of black as Duncan raised his hands. He held the sides of his robes clutched in his hands, and raised his arms to ten and two o'clock and blocked her view.

The sound of the pie as it hit him in the face was a wet, thudding splash, as if someone had thrown pudding at a wall.

Duncan spun around as soon as the disgusting mess had finished its flight, even as it dripped from his nose and cheeks. "Is everyone alright? Did you get any on you?" He asked, concern heavy in his voice.

"No, Heir MacFusty, you protected us all." Daphne replied with a horrified grimace. The yellowish-green syrupy pudding was undiluted bubotuber pus, and as they looked at Duncan's face it bubbled and distorted and turned into a lumpy parody of his normally handsome features. His eyes swelled shut, his lips expanded hideously, even his hands and neck became boil-covered misshapen lumps.

"Good, I'm glad." Duncan said, relieved. "Would someone be so kind as to lead me to the Hospital wing? I'm afraid I can't see anything just now."

Susan simply gripped his elbow in her hand and walked with him to the exit of the Great Hall. Hannah went with her at Duncan’s other elbow, and left the rest of them to return to their seats. Daphne left with a look of shame on her face and a slight tremor in her hands. Pansy returned to her seat and just wiggled in place. Romilda and Lavender left the Great Hall entirely. They didn't follow Duncan to the Hospital wing though, they just went back in the direction of their dorms.

That left her standing there where it had happened. Not a single drop of pus had even made it to the floor. Duncan had taken all of it. He'd collected _in his robes_ what hadn't landed on his face. She shook her head and breathed through the squeezing feeling in her chest. When she was able to open her eyes again, she noticed two things. The first thing was the Weasley twins giving each other significant looks.

"That... was not how that prank was supposed to play out, George." Fred told his twin in a low voice.

"No... no it wasn't, Fred." George replied, shock and disgust written on his face.

The second thing she noticed was the message written in lipstick on the underside of Duncan's 'gift box' lid.

It said "All my love, Lavender."

  
  


* * *

  
  


After a few moments' debate, she ditched breakfast and went to the Hospital wing to sit with Duncan and make sure Susan and Hannah kept their mitts to themselves. They were shooed away by Madam Pomfrey because she had to neutralize and clean wherever Duncan had been contaminated with the pus, and that meant taking his clothes off. Unfortunately, Madam Pomfrey left his boxers on, so that was disappointing, but she did like the look of his legs. They were just the right amount of hairy, but also lean and powerful and the muscles rippled whenever he moved. Even though it made her heart race, she couldn't really enjoy the show because she was worried about him. His face and hands and most of his torso were all bloated and misshapen and lumpy. He looked _terrible_.

She knew he would be alright, of course. The pus was horrible and painful, but didn't deal any real or lasting damage. Even though she _knew_ that, it still hurt to look at him.

Michael wouldn't have protected her. He wouldn't have protected any of them. He'd have tried to get out of the way. That was twice Duncan had done that. She decided then that it was probably mean of her to compare him to Michael. She still didn't want to spend any time with Duncan - even though she really did - but decided he really wasn't likely to betray or mock her. He just didn't do that kind of thing.

She hadn't thought Michael would either, but she had to admit she didn't really pay attention to his behaviour.

Madam Pomfrey sprinkled Neutralizer Dust all over him, and waited for it to react with the pus and remove its ability to affect bare skin. Then she took a cloth soaked in a citrus-smelling astringent and wiped him down everywhere.

"That should take care of any active effect of the pus, Mister MacFusty. Now just a boil-reducing potion and you should be back to normal by morning."

"Banfmmm." Duncan said. His lips and face were so swollen he couldn't pronounce anything.

"Now don't bother talking until morning, you can save whatever you have to say until then. This will feel a bit uncomfortable, but it's the best way to get a potion into you." She slipped an oversized straw between his puffy, grotesque lips, and attached the other end to a funnel. "It's also going to taste awful, so be prepared. The whole thing down the hatch if you please."

She poured the potion into the funnel, an entire jar of it, and Duncan swallowed the whole thing without a single noise of complaint.

She waited until Madam Pomfrey had gone, then crept next to him and cancelled her _Nonsonus_.

"It was a Fred and George prank." She told him, "But they looked at each other and said that wasn't at all how it was supposed to go. I don't think they would have used bubotuber pus, it isn't like them. I think it likely they will come apologize. I think they suspect their prank was tampered with. The inside of the box said 'All my love, Lavender', but I happen to know for a fact that Lavender doesn't have the patience or knowledge to tamper with their prank successfully. She _was_ dating Ronald Weasley until recently, though. Just thought you should know. Don't try to talk, just rest so you can get out of here."

She left him with that to think about, and hoped he came to the same conclusion she had - that Ronald had modified his brothers' prank and tried to blame it on his ex-girlfriend. For a simpleton like Ronald, it would have seemed like two revenges in one, and therefore irresistible. Time would tell.

She also wanted to know if Duncan had recognized the bubotuber pus before he had shielded everyone from it. She was willing to bet he had, and she liked what that said about his mind.

  
  


* * *

  
  


A whole week! Seven entire days she'd been stalking Duncan just trying to find a moment alone to talk to him! The poor boy was constantly, _constantly_! surrounded by other people - Most of them girls just looking to sink their fangs into him. It annoyed her that he was always polite and gracious about it. She could see it wore on him. It was even worse that week because of the pus prank in the Great Hall. Even Daphne Greengrass had taken to trying to corner him alone. Yes, she acknowledged the irony of complaining that other girls were doing exactly what she was doing, but she also didn't care.

She had finally caught him alone after their last Transfiguration class, so she'd followed him to a disused corridor on the fifth floor.

What the hell was he doing there? He’d better not be meeting any girls in any unused classroom!

Unfortunately, an unused classroom was exactly where he went. He stopped outside the door and looked around to make sure he was alone and there was no-one following him. Luckily he did so without using his dragon-eyes thing.

He cast an unlocking spell on the door, then ducked inside the room and the door closed again immediately. Silently too, she noted. She had a bad feeling about the whole situation.

She stood outside the door for a moment as she wrung her hands. Who was it? She hoped it was Greengrass. She didn't think she could handle it being anyone else. Greengrass was beautiful and smart enough to be respectable. She couldn't really complain if it was Greengrass. Anyone else though...

She looked both directions down the hall to make sure no-one was coming. She cast _Silencio_ on the door, then opened it slowly. She could see Duncan's hair unbound as it flowed over his naked shoulders and back. He knelt on a sofa that faced away from her, so that was all she could see of him. What was he _doing_?

She closed the door behind her, locked and sealed it against anyone else who might want entry. She crept closer to him slowly, aware that he could see her if he was using his dragon eyes. She stayed ready to run and hide. He didn't turn, however. He was intent on whatever it was he was doing. She crept closer and closer, almost close enough to touch the sofa, almost close enough to see...

Her wand was snatched from her grasp, and she became visible.

She jumped with a shriek, and whirled to see who could possibly... And stared into beautifully deep green dragon eyes.

"Give it back!" She yelled at him, her hand out.

He raised an eyebrow.

She suddenly realized she was alone in a locked, sealed room with _two_ Duncans, and both her knees went weak. She felt her heart begin to race and her breaths came quickly.

Burning kisses. hands sliding down her skin.

She felt heat rise from her chest into her face and steal her her voice and temerity.

"I will gladly give it back, on one condition." He said to her as he held her wand by its tip, ready to hand it back to her - and just out of reach.

Things he could want ran through her mind, and somehow they all involved nudity.

"What?" She squeaked.

"Promise to stay here and talk to me. Visibly." He smiled at her.

"That's _IT_?!" She clapped her hands over her mouth.

He laughed. "Well, I'm open to suggestions, but yeah I just wanted to talk to you, get to know you."

She looked at him numbly. Why? Why would he bother to get to know her? Because you're not desirable, stupid! Came the answer. He doesn't want you here for romance or even just blazing hot sex. You don't rate that. He's just being nice to you. Take it, it's better than you'll get anywhere else.

"I don't understand." She said slowly as she shook her head. "Why? Why me?"

"Well, I'd love to answer that for you but that's a conversation, and you haven't agreed to my condition yet."

She sighed. "Fine then." It was something. It was better than nothing. It was what she needed to learn his dragon eyes thing. That was what she wanted... wasn't it?

He handed her wand back to her, and she realized he must have cast _finite_ on her. He took out his own wand and pointed it at the second version of him on the sofa, and it turned into a desk on its side. The desk then floated off the sofa and into the corner of the room.

"That was a _desk_? This was a _trap_? For _me_?" She whirled and glared at him, unsure whether to be angry or flattered.

He shrugged. "You've been tailing me for a while. I've been getting sad waiting for you to come talk to me. So yeah, I set a trap for you. Worked too." He grinned.

She blushed again. It _had_ worked, damnit. "That goes back to my first question. Why? Why me?" She was sure her face was lobster red. She wanted to be invisible again. Her voice came out small and plaintive too. Fucking embarrassing.

He crossed in front of her and sat at one end of the sofa. He spat a gout of white-blue flame at the fireplace, and the wood caught immediately. As her eyebrows rose, a warm crackling fire glowed from the fireplace. He sat back against the sofa and put one ankle across his other knee.

"Why _not_ you?" He asked.

She snorted. "Oh please. As if I'm not _painfully_ aware of my own faults. Because I'm ugly. Because I'm lame. Because I have little patience and prefer books to people. _That's_ why not."

He smiled. "Alright then. Why you? Because you've looked out for my wellbeing at least twice already. Because your actions speak of honour and care far more loudly than others' voices cry out their own virtues. You may think yourself ugly all you like, that's your right. I think you're quite pretty, inside and outside. I didn't know you were lame, I'm sorry."

"Pffff." She huffed. "Not your fault. Troll's fault, Weasley's fault, Dumbledore's fault."

"A _troll_?! What happened?" He sat up straight, concern etched on his face.

A part of her rebelled and begged her not to tell him. It would be embarrassing and she would cry and it would hurt and he would reject her and she would be alone again. Another part of her overrode that part and simply whispered _Dragon Eyes_.

"I... don't want to tell that story, but... I'll make you a deal."

His frown let up some, and the air in the room felt less heavy. "What kind of deal?"

"Well first answer me a question - did you just breathe fire to light the fireplace? Is that what I saw?"

"Yes." He smiled sheepishly.

"Okay then. I _did_ just want to learn your dragon eyes thing, but now I want to learn that too. Can you teach me to see and breathe like a dragon?"

His eyebrows raised all the way. "You want to learn?"

She nodded.

"Well then - I will agree with one additional fee. It will take a long, _long_ time to teach you that. You and I are going to have to spend every spare moment together. That's a significant investment on my part just for a story, so I want one more thing into the bargain. I want you to let me do the one thing my instincts have been screaming at me to do since the moment I laid eyes on you. It'll only be once, and I'm not going to tell you what it is, you're just going to have to trust me."

She didn't like the sound of that. Part of her mind went straight to sex, and the other part went straight to Michael and free homework. She ended up torn in the middle.

She did have her wand though, she could just hex him... Dragon Eyes. Dragon _Breath_.

"Alright... I'll trust you once, but if you break that trust..."

He nodded solemnly. "I understand."

"Alright, do your thing first and then I'll tell you the story."

He stood in an instant, and crossed the floor back to her. He held out his hand to shake, so she did.

"We have a bargain." He said seriously as he looked into her eyes. He didn't have the Dragon Eyes anymore, just his regular bottomless green pools. She did her best to shove her trepidation down where it couldn't control her and stood stiffly but patiently as she waited to be molested.

She was half-relieved and half-disappointed when he slowly and cautiously stepped into her and enfolded her in his arms. That was all. He just stood there and held her gently. One hand cradled her head to his chest and stroked her hair. She felt his face rest gently on the top of her head.

He _touched_ her. It wasn't a quick shoulder squeeze. It wasn't a handshake. He _held_ her. Cradled her, even. He held her close to him, as though she were _precious_.

The instant that thought entered her mind, her eyes began to sting. She could feel her spine weaken, and her arms lifted behind him to clutch fistfuls of his robe. She expected him to drop his arms and back away then, but he didn't. He just kept his arms tight around her like an impenetrable shield. Her chest clenched as unfamiliar feelings blossomed there.

Warm. Safe. _Home_.

Her arms tightened around his ribs of their own accord and she pressed herself into him. The desperate emptiness in her chest that she kept pushed far, far down surged upward and overtook her. She didn't realize she was sobbing until she heard her own voice, and by then it was too late to stop it.

All the while, he just held her. He wasn't disgusted. He wasn't ashamed. He didn't ask for anything.

He just held her while all her pain came out like the flood from a burst dam. He was immovable and she clung to him as the tide of it pushed and pulled at her, and gradually... slowly... the waters receded. Her sobs grew further apart, the roaring emptiness smoothed away. She felt like she was left standing on a floodplain as the clouds parted and the sun poked through. She felt... calmer. Better than she had in a long time.

"Why?" She hiccoughed before she brought her breathing under control again. "Why would you hug me?" She looked up at him again, very aware of how close his face was to hers.

"I wanted to." He smiled at her. "Thank you for letting me."

"But... _why_?"

He shook his head with that same smile. "There is no reason, Hermione. No ulterior motive. I wanted to. That's all. Ever since I saw you on the train, my first instinct was to hug you. I've been sitting on it ever since and it feels really good to finally satisfy it. You feel really good. You smell great too."

She felt heat creep up her cheeks at that. Good thing she was already a hideous mess. She made the mistake then of looking at his chest. She had gotten tears and snot all down his front.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She reached in her pocket for her wand to clean him up, but he put his hands on her shoulders.

"Hermione," He said softly, "Relax. I care about _you_ , not this. You matter. This doesn't."

"No I don't." She replied in a small voice.

"To me you do."

"But _why_? You don't even _know_ me. _Nobody_ does."

He smiled that self-satisfied little smile again. "Because I want to."

What was she supposed to _do_ with that? Didn't he realize the hell he set himself up for? No, she corrected herself. Knowing him, he probably _did_ and just didn't _care_. The thought put a giggle in her chest.

"That's why I'm hoping we can be friends. I want to hang out with you, spend time with you, get to know you, swap stories with you, share new experiences with you. You've already shown you have my best interests at heart, how could I do less?"

Tears threatened her eyes again. Not because he offered her something she dared not dream of, but because he _meant it_.

"I'd like that." She half-whispered.

"Good! Settled then. Even if we weren't going to be spending all our time together, we'd be spending all our time together." He grinned.

"I suppose I should tell you about the troll then. We had - have - a deal."

"Before you do, I need to give you a caveat."

She frowned. "A caveat?"

He nodded. "For being my friend. It _might_ be dangerous. There are some people who want to kill me. Not at school, just out in Britain in general. I would very much like to tell you the whole story because I'm not fond of secrets, but knowing it would definitely put you in jeopardy unless you can shield your thoughts well. Until you can, I simply can't tell you, for your safety and mine."

"You... You're not kidding."

"No. You can ask Neville, I gave him the same caveat. He's working on his Occlumency now, him and Luna if you want to join in."

"I already was. I... might join in occasionally. If they don't mind being near me."

"Luna likes you. She said she smiled all day when you called me Poetry Boy because it reminded her. Neville just never met you really."

"Luna likes me?" She looked up into his eyes again.

He smiled and nodded at her. "It's not that hard to believe, you know. You're a good person, Hermione."

"It's just... new."

"Not _that_ new. I like you too, you know. I wouldn't want to be friends with someone I _didn't_ like." He smiled at her.

"Are we friends then?"

"If you want me, I'm yours."

"If that were true, we'd be a lot more than friends." She whispered to herself. "Friends then." She said aloud. He smiled back at her, and she could see his cheeks redden.

Part of her mind wondered if he'd heard her whisper, and the rest of it smashed that part down because with that legendary level of embarrassment it didn't bear thinking about.

She pushed him (and he let her) backward to the sofa and made him sit down, then she flopped down at the opposite end.

"It was first year, Halloween night, during dinner. I'd been having a... difficult time through the first two months."

"Difficult time how?"

She sighed. She really didn't want to get into her utter lack of friends, but she did promise. "Are you cognizant of muggle school? Wait, yes you are, you said your sisters went to one."

"Yeah, that." He smiled.

"I attended one between five and eleven when I got my Hogwarts letter. I read a lot as a child, partly due to not having any friends, and partly due to wanting to do well at school. So I was always ahead, I always knew all the answers. The other kids didn't like that. Called me Teacher's Pet and the like."

"I can not understand that. All this knowledge all around them, and they seem absolutely _bent_ on ignoring it all. I thought it was just me being strange. Sorry, continue."

She smiled at him. One more thing they had in common. "So long story short, I just thought I was the odd one in school. Then when my Hogwarts letter came, it seemed like that was the explanation for the whole problem. I was a witch, so naturally I didn't fit in with the rest of the kids. I was _so_ relieved. I would go to a new school with kids like me, and everything would be great."

"Knowing what I've seen of it so far... ouch." He grimaced.

She smiled at him and nodded. "Yeah, that. I got along with the rest of my dorm alright straight away, we were all kids in a new place and sort of afraid. When classes started however... I had memorized all the texts for first year in the summer beforehand. Right back to teacher's pet and 'insufferable know-it-all'."

He laughed. "Really? They _criticized_ you for knowing _too much_ in a _school_? I don't think I'll ever understand pin- er, huma - er, people."

"Insufferable know-it-all was from Professor Snape."

He laughed again. "A bloody _professor_! I'm sorry queen, I don't mean to laugh, but that's just _so ridiculous_ I can't even stand it."

"No, go ahead and laugh. It is, it really is. Anyway, so I had to deal with that shit for two months, and it came to a head that Halloween day in charms class. We were learning _Wingardium Leviosa_ , and I'd already learned it long before of course. I just couldn't stand to watch Ronald's efforts."

"Weasley?"

"That very shitbag. He was trying to club a feather with his wand while yelling the incantation incorrectly and got red in the face doing it. I corrected his pronunciation and wand movement, and instead of a thanks he started screaming obscenities at me. I mean, I was trying to _help_ him and he acted like I'd kicked his mother into a meat grinder. That was the last straw. I grabbed my bag and left the class. Went to the girls' loo and bawled my eyes out for hours."

"Can't imagine having to put up with such idiotic backwardness. I'm so sorry." He smiled understandingly at her, and she returned the smile. She was talking about herself to a friend, who _listened_ , and _understood_. It was probably never going to happen again, but Merlin's beard it felt good.

"Not your fault. So finally I didn't have any tears left and decided to leave, but there was a horrendous crash. I looked out under the stall door, and what did I see? A bloody great full-grown twelve-foot-tall Paranthropus Montis, using a tree as a club and just smashing up the loo for the fun of it."

"Wait wait wait. The wards keep everything even mildly troll-related out of the building, I read it in Hog-"

"-warts: A History! I read that book _so_ many times." She grinned at the thought that someone else had done sensible reading.

"Me too! So how in the Nest did a full grown Paranthropus Montis even get _into_ the - Wait, someone had to let it in, of course. Even if the Headmaster didn't do it himself, the wards would have told him about it, because the Headmaster has control and knowledge of all the Wards. So it was either the Headmaster, or someone did it for him, but either way he knew about it."

"My conclusions exactly! I was terrified at the time, and screamed like a twelve-year old girl."

"You _were_ a twelve-year-old girl."

"It was still dumb. I should have shut my mouth and made a run for it when it was distracted. I didn't, and it bashed its way through the stalls with its treetrunk of a club. The last one that I was in got broken and sort of knocked over. I scrambled out through the bottom and tried to run, but I didn't watch to see if the troll was distracted so of course it wasn't when I finally ran. It caught me with the treetrunk on my left leg and broke my knee sideways while it sent me out into the hall."

"Ouch. How did you get away?"

"I didn't. It bashed me out of the bathroom and I knocked my head on the stones in the hall. I remember seeing people coming toward me, and then I woke up in the infirmary. I remember looking at my knee and seeing it back in place, with a big brace on it. There was a cane beside the bed too. I started to get scared, and that's when I heard the Headmaster tell Madam Pomfrey not to 'waste a good potion on a mudblood'."

She was looking right at him, right into his eyes when it happened, so she knew she hadn't imagined it. His jaw set and the muscles rippled, and his eyes _shimmered_ like they had suddenly turned into green pearls. The air over him distorted as well, just like it had in the Great Hall.

"That... makes me incredibly angry." He said in a soft, dangerous voice. "His only job is the safety and wellbeing of every student."

"Can't say I was best pleased either. I had to learn to use a cane with all the stairs in here. Naturally the other students thought it was great fun to 'trip' over my cane and yell at me for being clumsy. Broke my nose once against the stairs. When I finally got to go home for Christmas holidays, I told my parents everything and begged them - begged them - to send me to school in France or Germany or anywhere but Hogwarts."

"They didn't, since you're still here."

She smiled at him again. She wanted to curl up against him. "We can't afford to move to the continent. It would take years to build up a decent practice again, and we can't abandon our patients like that. I'm sure you understand." She said in her father's condescending, dismissive voice.

"Practice?"

"My parents are both dentists."

"Oh. Now I understand. So you were stuck coming back here to all the shit and pain, and with a bad knee as a welcome gift. Unless I miss my guess, that year you learned your invisibility and just disappeared. Better than dealing with idiots who hate you for learning in a school."

"And then shitheads like Weasley targeted me whenever possible because they couldn't most of the time, and shitheads like Malfoy made fun of me for it."

"I admire your strength."

That made her laugh. What a joke. "It takes great strength to get picked on and put down and not defend yourself." She said bitterly.

"It does. It takes great strength of will to endure that and not lose the core of yourself. You kept your love of learning. You kept your wits. You kept your personality, even as every comfort was ripped from you. You have great strength, Hermione. More than you realize."

She felt heat creep up her face again. What do you say to that? Luckily, she didn't have to think of anything.

"Why do you want to See and Breathe as a Svurtr?"

"Svurtr?"

"Black Dragon. Dragons don't know that word, it's a human word. Black dragons simply know they are Svurtr."

"Oh. How do you know that?"

He didn't answer, he took out his wand instead and floated the desk to the floor between him and the fireplace. A swift motion later, the desk became a beautiful black dragon two feet tall with intricate little scales and gorgeous amethyst eyes. It had a tiny scar on one side of its face, and what looked like a bite out of the webbing of one wing.

"That's beautiful." She told him.

"That's Mother." He told her. "I didn't come from one of her eggs, obviously, but she found me when I was just a tiny thing, maybe a year old. I was being eaten by an eagle. She ate the eagle instead, and raised me until I was ten."

Raised by a dragon? An ACTUAL DRAGON?! Wait, was it other dragons who wanted to kill him?! That's why he couldn't share secrets until she learned Occlumency? Did dragons even _have_ Legillimensy? They would have to have intelligence if one raised him... wouldn't they? Merlin's fucking dicebag, how much did they _not_ know about dragons?

"Is it dragons who are hunting you? Is that why you can't tell me everything?"

He smiled and shook his head. "No, no Svurtr would bother with a single pinkskin - human - unless he or she had offered great offense. Like, wiped out a clutch of eggs or something. Then that human would die, and that would be the end of it. No, it takes humans to rage about an idea."

"So it's humans who are out to kill you."

"A group of wizards and witches."

A group of wizards and witches out to kill... Death Eaters, most likely. She didn't think there were any other groups of witches and wizards who wanted to kill people, at least not in Britain. If that was so, then why would they want...

"Ohmyfuckinggodyou'reHarryPotter." It just came out. She hadn't even meant to say it out loud.

He looked at her for a long moment, and she was half-afraid he would do something to her. He'd said it was a secret for her protection and his, but would he... what? Obliviate her? She supposed he could. Would he? Would she mind, really?

He sighed. "I should have seen that coming." He said sadly, "I'm sorry, but now I have to offer you an unpleasant choice, for both our sakes."

She didn't like the sound of that.

"On the one hand, I could use a memory charm and change that part of the conversation... but honestly that's no guarantee. You're very smart, Hermione, and would probably figure it out again in a matter of days."

"And on the other hand?" She was tensed, ready to run, but she really didn't like her chances. Even if she'd had two good knees, he was incredibly strong and nearly a foot taller than she was.

"On the other hand, you need Occlumantic shields. Unfortunately there's only one way to give you those shields, and it will still take days of hard practice. I'm so sorry, Hermione. I should have seen where this conversation was going. I said too much. I underestimated you, and for that I am truly sorry."

"Well _that_ I'll let you be sorry for. Underestimating me, I mean. What's this other choice with the shields?"

"I really _really_ think you should pick the memory charm option. The shields... that's permanent. I would have to _change_ you. Permanently. It's not -"

"Change me? Change how? To be like you?" A wild hope surged through her. A chance to _not_ be herself anymore? How on magic's green earth could she ever pass that up? That would be like getting everything she'd ever wanted, with dragon eyes and breath as a bonus.

"Yes, you would have to drink some of my blood. It would change you. It would hurt. You would scream."

"Then I'll scream. I'll hurt. I'll change. Just from the little I've told you, you should already know I want that more than anything."

"But... I _like_ you. As you _are_." He sighed.

"I like you too, and you're already changed. So whatever is going to change, it isn't my mind or my personality, is it?"

"Maybe. I really don't know, since I was only a year old when it happened to me. Maybe it did change who I was. In any case, I'm not doing it tonight, so you'll have to sleep on it. I don't want to be responsible for you hating what I've done to you years from now." His face was wracked with worry and guilt. "It could affect your lifespan, it could affect your ability to have children, I don't know. Really, the memory charm might be the better option."

Okay, that was a fair point. She did want children someday. Wanted to live past thirty, too. "Will I still be able to learn to see and breathe from you even if we just do the memory charm?"

"Yes, of course. It will take a lot longer, but I would even if we didn't have a deal." He scraped his clawed fingers backward through his hair in a gesture of frustration, and she saw it. It was just a brief flash, but there was no mistaking it - A pale white scar on the right side of his forehead near the hairline - in the shape of a lightning bolt.

She crawled over to him in a flash, and before she knew it she had straddled him and pulled his hair back from the scar. "You really are." She whispered.

"Yes." He sighed. "I really am. And without Occlumantic shields, any death eater could pull that from your memory and hurt you to get to me."

She relaxed and sat on his knees. "Is that your main argument? The thing you're really afraid of?"

"Well yeah, I don't want anyone to hurt you to get to me."

She shook her head. "You haven't read up on their tactics then. It wouldn't matter whether I knew or not. If we're friends I'm still in danger. So are Luna and Neville, and they don't know."

"Shit! Really?"

"Death Eaters are evil, Dunc - Harry? Duncan. I should keep calling you Duncan."

"Yes. Please."

"Death Eaters are _evil_. They'd Apparate into my parents' house and make dad watch while they rape mum before they kill them both, just to flush me out, and _by extension_ you. There's nothing anyone can do about it except kill them all. They believe that they are the only worthwhile lifeform on the planet and that everything and everyone else are only here to be their slaves and playthings."

He drew a deep breath and looked down at his lap. "I...They really are an Affliction. I won't let anyone threaten you or Luna or Neville. Nor your families."

"I've read about Legillimensy. I don't look people in the eyes anyway, except for you. You already know I won't tell anyone. You're safe with me, Harry. Safe as can be, anyway. Safety is an illusion."

He quirked one corner of his mouth into a lopsided grin and looked up at her through raised eyebrows.

She couldn't help but smile. "Yeah I know. See you back here tomorrow after lunch?" It was a Saturday so there weren't any classes to get in the way.

He raised his arms and pulled her closer to him, and took a deep breath while buried in her neck.

"Yeah, okay. Sleep well."

He stood up and let her slide down his body to touch down on the floor gently.

"You too." She said. "Thank you, by the way."

He frowned. "For what?"

"For being you to me." She smiled. She felt heat creeping up her face again, so she cast her nondetections and hurried from the room back to her hideyhole.

She had some serious thinking to do.


	6. Chapter 6

  
  


Banners? Check.

Balloons? Check.

Music? Check.

Gifts? Check.

Cake with fifteen candles? Check.

Completely forgot it was her birthday weekend? Check.

Harry sighed. It was a good thing he didn't actually require that much sleep.

He'd woken at quarter to five that morning just to wee, and realized as he'd done so that it was Hermione's birthday party weekend. She was already going to meet him back in that unused room on the fifth floor, so there likely wouldn't be a better time to spring the surprise on her. She would show up after lunch, so instead of going back to bed he'd just gone to the room and started decorating.

Some of the chairs had become banners, some of them had become balloons, some of them large golden bows and tinsel he'd then strewn about and stuck to walls and ceiling. It wasn't a perfect job, but he liked it. He hoped Hermione did too. He'd have to ask Luna to check his work.

With the room finished and prepared, he headed back to the kitchens to check on the cake. Lammy had said she would bake and ice it, but leave the writing on the cake to him, and he thanked her for that. It wasn't that he didn't trust Lammy to do it, far from it. If Lammy had just completed the whole cake, then it would have looked perfect. The writing would have been perfectly even and spaced perfectly, and it would look awesome... but also less personal.

He entered the kitchens and found Lammy waiting for him.

"Lammy bes done the cake, Mister Duncan Sir!" She called to him with glee.

"Brilliant, Lammy thank you so much! I can't wait to see the smile on her face, can you?"

Lammy shook her head enough to make her ears flap. "No, Lammy only sees that once or twice in three years. Mistress Hermione's smile bes lovely."

"I've only seen it once but I completely agree, and much too rare." Harry smiled. "Thanks for preparing the icing for me too, Lammy."

"That bes Lammy's pleasure, Mister Duncan. Lammy never sees wizard write with icing before, Lammy bes excited."

Harry laughed. "Well don't get too excited, I'll probably mess it up at least once."

"That bes fine. Lammy can fix." She grinned.

Harry rolled up his sleeves and picked up the piping bag full of light gold-coloured icing. He paused for a moment to block out in his imagination how and where the letters were going to go, then started piping. He lay down a wide strip of the gold first, then a thinner strip of light blue on top of it aligned to the right side of the gold, and the effect was almost three-dimensional. Lammy only had to erase two mistakes before he was finished.

He took a step back and examined the cake critically. The lettering was slightly wonky in places, and the lines slightly uneven, and in places the coverage of the gold by the blue was uneven.

It was perfect.

"It bes finished?" Lammy asked dubiously.

"Yup." He smiled at the House Elf. "I know it doesn't look perfect, Lammy, but that's sort of the point. This shows Hermione that we made it together, her friends. We didn't just ask for it to be made."

"Lammy not understands. Lammy is Mistress's friend, why Lammy not just make cake?"

"Because you would make it perfectly, Lammy. Every other House Elf in the kitchens would _also_ make it perfectly, right? So Hermione wouldn't be able to look at it and tell right away that you made it. This way, she'll know it wasn't a House Elf who made it - even though it was, really - and it will mean more to her. We'll tell her you made everything except the writing, of course. Then she'll know it was just her friends and not other House Elves who made it."

"Oh. Lammy sort of understands."

"Humans are weird, Lammy. It's okay, I think so too."

"Yes." She nodded emphatically. "Humans are weird."

"Is the cake safer here or in the room we decorated?"

"In Mistress Hermione's birthday room. Other students come to kitchens sometimes."

Harry nodded. "Alright then." He picked the cake up, then wrapped his power around himself and vanished from sight. "Thanks for all your help, Lammy. I'll call you once Luna and I head to the birthday room just after lunch, will you be able to get away then?"

Lammy nodded.

"Great, see you then." Harry left the kitchens and carefully made his way to the birthday room where he set the cake down on the table next to the gifts. All the room needed then was Luna, Lammy, and Hermione.

Luna had visitors at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall when he arrived. Breakfast was over and most of the students had gone elsewhere, but Luna sat at her table with a book open in front of her that she wasn't being allowed to read. Mandy Brocklehurst, Cho Chang, Faye Dunbar, and Romilda Vane sat two each beside her.

"Come _on_ , Lovegood. It's a simple thing. Just dump it in his drink, and all your problems are solved."

"I will never understand how you made it into Ravenclaw, Cho." Luna said sweetly. "Your comprehension level is Slytherin at best."

Cho's face twisted in rage, and Harry thought the real Cho was just ugly. She balled her fist and lifted her arm, but Brocklehurst, seated on her far side, prevented her from throwing the punch.

"Fine." Brocklehurst said as she restrained Cho. "What do you want?"

Luna paused and looked each of the girls in the face. "You really don't get it, do you? I would rather you hexed me with everything you have. I would rather wander around the castle naked for days. There is _nothing_ you can offer me. You want me to _betray_ my best friend and _give him to you_. All four of you are completely and utterly _stupid_."

Dunbar took her wand out and placed it on the table in front of her. "Alright then. You have chosen the _hard way_." She said, and waited for the others to pull their wands out as well. Luna simply sat in the middle, and smiled.

Harry had seen enough. He stood an inch behind Luna and towered over her, then dropped his Disillusionment.

"You know," He said casually, "I'm usually an easygoing sort of person. Threats made against me are not really worth reacting to..." He lowered his eyes to the girls at the table, lowered his voice to a growl, and let his magic whip his hair around and bend the air around him with its heat. "...but you threaten my friends, and you'll find that it is _you_ who have chosen the path of pain."

All four girls practically tripped over themselves trying to get up and run from the Great Hall.

Luna stood up and hugged him. "You have the _best_ timing. That was great!" She grinned up at him.

"You alright?" She smiled back at her.

She nodded. "That was honestly kind of scary, but I wouldn't - won't - back down."

He hugged her tighter. "You are the best, Luna. Are you sure you're not secretly a Gryffindor?"

She made a disgusted face. "There's no need to be _insulting_."

He laughed and let her go. "Thanks, Luna. You're my best friend too, though I hope you don't mind sharing that with Nev."

"You heard that."

"I did, and you were brilliant."

She just beamed at him and turned slightly pink.

"Anyway, I was just coming to talk to you - hold on." He pushed magic into his eyes and scanned the Great Hall, but Hermione wasn't there. "Okay, all clear, she's not here. I set a trap for Hermione last night and caught her in it. We had a long conversation, and she promised to meet me back in that room today after lunch. I thought it would be the perfect time to spring her party on her because we know she isn't expecting it, and we know exactly where she'll be and when."

"Hmph." Luna grunted. "You deserve to be in Ravenclaw far more than those four _dunderheads_."

"High praise, coming from you." He grinned. "I spent the morning getting the room ready. Lammy baked and iced the cake, but I wrote the lettering on it, and that's all there and ready along with the gift I got her. Can I show you the room and get your critique on the decoration?"

"Sure! Let me go get her gift, I'll meet you back here, and you can show me where it is. I'll put her gift with yours, and that way we'll only have to show up there."

"Deal. Don't forget to Disillusion the gift, or yourself in general. You know she wanders around invisible."

Luna nodded. "See you in a minute." She took out her wand and vanished.

Harry had just finished reading the page that Luna had been on when she whispered in his ear. "I'm back."

He picked her book up and brought it with him. "Follow me," He said softly, and trooped up to the fifth floor. He looked around with dragon eyes to make sure Hermione wasn't following them, but she wasn't. Luna set her gift on the table next to his, and smiled as she looked around the room.

"Surprisingly cute, for a boy." She noted with satisfaction.

"Me or the decorations?"

Luna chuckled. "You have a long way to go to get to cute, Mister MacFusty."

Harry laughed. "My sisters are going to love you."

"Yay I get to meet the family!" Luna grinned and hugged him.

"Don't celebrate so quickly, they did kind of raise me, so they're bound to be strange." He grinned back.

"As though I'm not. You're so thoughtful, Poetry Boy."

Harry chuckled. "What are you going to do until lunch?"

"I was reading ahead in Charms. Could I have my book back?"

"Right, sorry." He fished it out of his pocket and handed it back to her. "I'm going to go finish my Transfiguration essay then. Lammy will be bringing snacks for the party, so I'm not going to bother with lunch. Meet you outside the Great Hall and we'll come back here?"

"It's only three hours until lunch, I think I'll just sit on the sofa here and read ahead. See you when you get back here."

"Fair enough. I'll come back when my essay is done." He let himself out and then locked the door again. Then he thought about Hermione wandering around, and locked the door three other ways so she couldn't just walk in and spoil the surprise.

He grabbed his bookbag from his dorm room and went to the library for a quiet place to write. Two and a half hours later he blew on his finished essay to dry the ink, and nearly jumped out of his skin when Hermione appeared next to his face.

"Transfiguration essay. Only got that yesterday. Finished?"

He whooshed a breath out, then nodded. "I am. Why wait?"

Her rich chestnut eyes practically shone into his. "Exactly! I'm going to skip lunch, I had a late breakfast. Are you ready to go have our discussion?"

Shit!

"Umm... actually I had to go talk to Luna first. I locked the door to that room extra tight, so don't go there before... fifteen minutes from now? That will give me time to talk to Luna and get there to unlock it."

"Extra locks? Why would you put... did you do some kind of preparation for the change?"

"No, I just wanted to make sure it would stay private."

"Oh." She looked a little disappointed. "Okay, well I'll see you there in fifteen then. _Mixtionis Perfectus. Nullus. Nonsonus._ "

She disappeared, and a moment later she wasn't there when he reached out to touch her. He rolled up his now-dry essay, and put the ink, quill, parchment, and books back in his bag. He shouldered it, and made himself vanish using the same spells she had.

He didn't bother with anything else, he ran straight to the room on the fifth floor.

"Hermione's coming!" He said as soon as he entered and dropped the nondetections. "Ten minutes maybe. Lammy!"

Lammy appeared next to him. "What can Lammy does for Mister Duncan?"

"Hermione is on her way here, and I promised I'd tell you. When she gets here and opens the door, we're going to yell "Surprise!' because it's a surprise party."

"Oh! Lammy gets snacks and bes right back." She vanished with a _pop_.

"I think hiding behind the door might be best?" Luna said as she looked around.

"That was my plan."

Plates of sandwiches, pastries, biscuits, and jugs of juice appeared on the table beside the cake, then Lammy appeared again.

Luna motioned Lammy over to them as they stood behind where the door would be when it opened. "Lammy, come stand with us so she can't see us when she comes in." She smiled at the House Elf.

"Lammy bes hiding badly now!" She grinned and stood with them.

" _Nox Omnia_." He cast at the lights, and the room was plunged into darkness except for the faint embers glowing from the fireplace.

He felt Luna lean up against him in the dark. A hand gripped his behind.

"Luna... that's my butt." He whispered.

"Yes, yes it is." She whispered back. He could hear the giggle in her voice.

He sighed. "I suppose asking you to remove your hand from it would be a futile gesture?"

"Hmmm..." She practically sang with amusement. "Yes, I think that likely. An opportunity like this demands diligent pursuit."

Then another hand gripped his other cheek. "What opportunity Lammy bes taking?" She asked curiously. "Butt just feels like butt."

Luna laughed out loud and only barely avoided snorking.

After a few minutes without Luna removing her hand, he stopped being embarrassed by it. He didn't bother to tell her she could just ask, she'd just say it was more fun her way.

Another moment passed, and the door handle turned. The door slowly opened, and Hermione's head appeared.

"Duncan?" She asked quietly, "Are you here?" She entered the room.

He whispered " _Lumos Omnia_ ," and directed his power at the lights. The room flooded with light.

"SURPRISE!" Luna said just as the lights came on, followed a split second later by Lammy and himself.

Hermione jumped and went rigid in shock. He gently closed the door behind her as Lammy hugged Hermione's legs and Luna finally took her hand off his behind and bounced happily next to Hermione.

"Happy Birthday, Hermione!" Luna grinned.

Hermione looked numbly at the faces present. She looked down at Lammy, up at Luna, and further up at him. She looked around at the decorations, the balloons, and finally at the banners that read 'Happy Birthday Hermione'.

"Guh." She spat a sob as her eyes closed and her lips twisted downward. Another sob followed it and almost bent her over. Tears began to fall from her cheeks.

Luna pulled her into a hug and Hermione melted against her with great wracking sobs. She wrapped her arms around Luna and clung to her. Luna just smiled and hugged her quietly for a moment.

"I can't." She sobbed, "I can't believe..." She let go of Luna and knelt to hug Lammy. "Thank you... thank you."

"Happy Birthday, Mistress Hermione." Lammy grinned. Hermione sniffed and wiped her cheeks with the palms of her hands.

"This is beyond wonderful, all of you." She took deep breaths and wiped her eyes some more, and looked up questioningly at Harry. He raised an eyebrow back at her. She let go of Lammy and sort of tentatively spread her arms out at him.

Oh.

He smiled and stepped into her and held her gently for the second time in as many days. He cradled her head again and stroked her hair, and she nuzzled into his chest. Luna whispered something in her ear, and then he felt Hermione shift both her hands to his butt. And squeeze.

"Thanks for that, Luna." He said flatly.

Hermione giggled, and Luna just laughed outright.

"Lammy takes opportunities too." She grinned.

Hermione started laughing and looked up at him with shining eyes.

"Yes, everyone's had handfuls of my poor molested behind. Happy Birthday."

"Well, it is now." She grinned.

"Would you like snacks first or gifts?"

Her eyes squeezed together again and more tears came out. "I'm just so happy you even care." She buried her face against him.

"That means presents." Luna said with finality. "Manoeuver the Birthday Girl to the sofa if you please." Luna went to the table and turned the music on softly, just for ambience, and cancelled the Disillusionment on her gift before she picked it up.

Harry smiled at Luna and bent, picked Hermione up in his arms princess-style and walked over to the sofa where he pretended to trip and dumped her on the sofa as she shrieked.

She glared at him until she realized he was just goofing, and he just smiled smugly back at her. Luna plunked a large gift-wrapped box down on the coffee table in front of her and snapped her out of her mock glare. Hermione stared at the box for a moment as she bit both her lips and breathed deeply through her nose as she tried not to cry again.

"We _like_ you. We _wanted to_." He told her. She looked up at him with a lips-only smile and nodded as she wiped her eyes.

"Thank you Luna. You really didn't have to, just being here - "

"Wouldn't be as much fun." Luna finished. "Open it, I've been keeping it a secret for weeks and I'm just going to explode if you don't open it _right now_."

Hermione giggled while hiding her teeth behind her hand, then tentatively reached out to unwrap Luna's gift. The constantly shifting hues and patterns of the wrapping paper made it difficult to find where the seam was, but Hermione managed it after a few seconds. Beneath the paper was a plain cardboard box that looked like a box that a dress might come in.

Hermione lifted the lid off the box and started crying again.

Inside, lying on its back, was a rich, deep burnt-orange coloured bookbag. It was burnished leather with a rectangular bottom and rounded top. Nestled just under the apex of the semicircle at the top of the bookbag, her name was embroidered in gold thread. Below her name, in the center of the semicircle, was an embroidered patch. The patch had a scarlet background with gold lettering and showed an outline of the castle around the words 'Hogwarts Poetry Club'.

"Luna, it's beautiful." She said through her tears.

Luna smiled. "That's not all. I'm a Ravenclaw, after all. It's also bottomless, featherlight, has theft wards, and is completely liquidproof. I made the patch, too. Touch your wand to it."

"You made that?" She asked incredulously. She took her wand out and touched it to the patch, and the outline of the castle disappeared, as did the 'Hogwarts Poetry Club'. In its place was a dark amber coloured background, and gold-embroidered onto it were the words 'Stony queen, most noble and most fair! Descend; be stone no more. Approach and strike all that look upon thee with marvel.'

She took her wand away and it reverted to its Poetry Club appearance.

"Oh Luna, that's just... She stood and wrapped Luna in a hug. "You're wonderful, Luna. I'm just... Thank you. Thank you."

"You don't deserve the way people treat you, Hermione. You never did, and it made me very angry. I'm just glad you finally decided to be visible for somebody so I could catch up to you and tell you. Honestly, if it hadn't been for people constantly kicking you, it would have been me they bullied, so I'm doubly sorry. Not only do you not deserve it, you bear it because I was too scared to stand up and say stop. Then you disappeared, and I couldn't even find you to talk to you." Luna spilled everything in a rush, as though Hermione would simply vanish again before she finished. When she had said what she needed to say, she looked at the floor, sadness and guilt warred on her features. "So... I'm sorry, Hermione. And thank _you_ for not hating me. Do you... could... we be friends?"

Hermione hugged her tighter and let her go. "I would like that. I think it should be required of all Poetry Club members." She smiled her lips-only smile at Luna despite her red, watering eyes.

Lammy handed Hermione a handkerchief, and she blew her nose on it. "Thank you Lammy. You're a good friend too."

"Mistress Hermione is Lammy's friend too." Lammy hugged her legs again for a moment.

"I put another gift inside it, it's for later. Put half the bottle in your shampoo, that's what I do and it works for me." Luna said quietly.

"Okaayy..." Hermione frowned in confusion, but nodded anyway. Luna smiled happily and went to the table for a sandwich.

"Lammy's turn!" Lammy snapped her fingers and a perfectly wrapped gift tied with red ribbon appeared in front of Hermione.

"Thank you, Lammy." Hermione said as she opened it. Inside the gift box was a small round-topped chest.

"Lammy had to shrink it to make it fit the box. Mistress Hermione can restore it when takings back to her place." Lammy said with a grin. "Bes full of pretty things."

Hermione lifted the lid of the chest and gasped as her eyes went round. It was filled to the brim with jewelry and precious gemstones.

"Lammy! Where did you get all this? I can't accept this, there must be a million galleons' worth here!" Hermione said, shocked.

"Lammy collects pretty things from lost and forgotten places, like the Come and Go room. Lammy has lots and lots of pretty things, so Lammy shares a few." The Elf grinned at her. "Now Mistress Hermione can decorate with pretty things and shows more smiles. Lammy likes Mistress's smiles. Lammy likes Mister Duncan more now because Mistress smiles more when Mister Duncan bes near." Lammy smiled over at Harry too, and Harry restrained a chuckle and smiled back at the Elf.

"I think it's brilliant, Lammy. I like Hermione's smiles too." He affirmed, then looked at Hermione. "You can't refuse a birthday gift, that would just be hurtful. You don't want to be hurtful to poor brilliantly thoughtful Lammy, do you?" He hit her with his best puppy-dog look.

She looked from him to Lammy and back again, and sighed as she deflated. "No, I don't. Thank you Lammy." She hugged the Elf again, but was clearly still stunned by the enormity of her gift.

"I think it's brilliant. That was a lovely gift, Lammy. I'll make sure Hermione honours it appropriately." Luna said with a twinkle in her eye.

Hermione had the sense to look unsure about that.

"My turn then!" Harry said, and retrieved his gift for her from the table. Unlike Lammy's, it was a little lopsided, unevenly wrapped and had three bows just stuck on the top. Hermione took it and lips-only smiled when she saw it.

"Thank you, Duncan. I love it already."

"Fond of crappy wrapping jobs, you mean." He grinned back at her.

She just bit her lips at him as she unwrapped it to reveal a book and a closed box a half inch thick, three inches across and five inches long.

"Apparator's Almanac! Duncan, this is great! Thank you so much!"

"I want to learn to Apparate too, so I might borrow it later if I may." He smiled at her.

"You're both welcome to." She smiled at Luna too. She opened the case that came with the book, and sighed at the necklace inside. It was a small gold pendant shaped and etched to look like a book, open, with a quill made to look like it was writing runes in the book. The back read 'Happy fifteenth Hermione'.

"I love it. Help me put it on?" She held it out to him, then turned away from him and swept her hair out of the way.

He took it from her and fastened it around her neck for her.

"Oh! It's warm!" She exclaimed.

"The runes the quill is writing on the front are actual runes. I enlarged it and carved those in there. I figured since most of the year in Scotland is winter, keeping warm would be a good thing. So, now you'll always be warm."

"Enchanting isn't even a subject at Hogwarts anymore!" Hermione complained with a jealous pout. "How did you learn?"

"I learned about enchanting two years ago and just studied as much as I could on it. Mostly from the MacMillan family library. I made something similar for Mother last year so she doesn't have to breathe on her hoard to keep warm."

"Your mother breathes on a hoard to keep warm?" Luna asked as she cocked her head to one side and frowned slightly.

"His mother is a black dragon." Hermione explained.

"Really?" Luna's eyebrows rose. "I thought you were joking."

"I didn't come out of an egg obviously, she just raised me until I was ten. I'll introduce you sometime. Anyone else want cake? Lammy baked it and iced most of it." He was fairly certain both girls had noted his rapid change of topic and hoped they would just let it go. He didn't want to have to do to Luna what he was already going to have to do to Hermione. It was best if it just never came up, and he'd learned that lesson. He hoped Hermione didn't end up paying for his mistake.

"Mister Duncan makes the writing on it too." Lammy nodded. She snapped her fingers and the cake appeared on the coffee table along with plates and forks and a knife.

Hermione looked at the cake and then back to Lammy and Harry. "It's perfect." She said.

Lammy looked at Harry, and he nodded. "Humans are weird." They said to each other simultaneously. Luna giggled, and Hermione hid a smile behind her hand. Harry picked up the knife and handed it to Hermione handle-first.

"If you would do the honours, my queen?"

Hermione accepted the knife from him with a lips-only smile. She cut four pieces from the cake and handed them around. When they had all finished their cake, Hermione went and hugged Lammy again.

"Thank you for the wonderful cake, Lammy. It was delicious, and thank you for being part of this. This is the best day I have ever had in this castle." She went to hug Luna then. "Thank you, Luna."

"My pleasure, Poetry Club sister." Luna smiled.

Hermione lips-only smiled back at her. "I like that. I never had a sister before."

"Me either." Luna grinned.

Hermione turned to him then, and gratitude shone from her eyes, along with something else he couldn't identify. "Thank you too, Duncan. If not for you I don't think this would have even been possible. I hadn't intended to be seen at all this year, thanks to Ronald and Michael. So thank you for this, and for everything you've done for me and Luna. I only had one friend before today," She smiled at Lammy, who smiled back, "And now I have three. I feel so rich I don't even know what to do with myself."

'Hopefully you still feel that way tomorrow', Harry thought. "I'm just glad we could give you some small amount of happiness. As far as I understand it, that's what friends are for." He smiled at her.

"I don't want it to end," Hermione said sadly, "But I know Lammy has duties, and you two have homework and things to do. I... don't know how birthday parties are supposed to go, so thank you all again, don't let me keep you from the rest of your day."

Lammy hugged Hermione again. "Lammy does has duties, but Lammy always comes when Mistress Hermione calls."

Hermione smiled and nodded. "You're the best, Lammy."

"Lammy Is Mistress Hermione's friend." She said proudly, and vanished with a soft _pop_.

Luna suddenly looked from Hermione to him and then back with a growing smile. She stood and walked to Hermione, then pulled her to her feet and into a hug. He could see they had a whispered conversation, during which Hermione's neck and face grew quickly bright red.

Luna let go and held her shoulders, and looked into her eyes. "Promise me you'll talk to me tomorrow, 'kay?"

Hermione nodded. "Okay." She said softly.

She waved at him and sauntered toward the door. "Grab you later Duncan." She smiled.

Yeah, no doubt.

"Talk to you later, First Friend." He waved back.

Luna waved again before she exited and closed the door behind her. It locked, and then Hermione pulled out her wand and sealed and silenced it.

"What was that about?" He asked. "You went Fireball red."

"Luna thought I wanted time alone with you to..." She blushed again. "You know."

"Oh! Haha! Funny, Luna is usually really perceptive."

Hermione's smile and blush faded. "Is she?" She didn't frown, exactly, but her happy mood took a definite downturn.

He wasn't a fool. He knew it wasn't what she wanted to hear, especially given her whispered comment yesterday. He was very likely going to alter her memories in a few moments, so it didn't really matter... unless she chose the change. If she did, she would be the closest thing to him that existed, and while that thought made him inexplicably excited, he also felt that she should wait until she settled into her new form. She may have new thoughts and ideas and likes. She should be able to make her own choices without having to put up with his interference.

"So... you've thought about what you'd like to do?" He asked softly.

She pulled a piece of parchment out of her back pocket and handed it to him. "I did. That's what I'd been doing before I caught you in the library."

He opened the parchment and read it.

**Reasons to Change:**

**1\. I hate myself as I am. - Counterargument: I won't always hate myself. I'm still growing.**

**2\. I want Dragon Eyes and Breath. - Counterargument: Additional differences in an environment where I am already denigrated for being different would exacerbate present issues.**

**3\. Plan to abandon Britain and my family as soon as school is finished anyway. - Counterargument: Family will give me a place to stay until I make enough money to be independent, abandoning my family is not smart.**

**4\. I would love to have something Duncan and I have that is uniquely our own. - Counterargument: What if the thing that we share binds us together and we end up hating each other?**

**Reasons not to change:**

**1\. I want children someday. - Counterargument: I can adopt.**

**2\. I want to live for a long time. - Counterargument: Living well can far outweigh a long and unfulfilling life.**

**3\. Might have to re-learn how to do magic? - Counterargument: I love learning to do magic, so great.**

**4\. I'm sort of grossed out by having to drink blood. - Counterargument: Potions taste worse.**

**Conclusions:**

**There are valid reasons to change and not to change, and the counterarguments for each render the decision neutral from a logical standpoint. This leaves the decision in the hands of my emotions, and that is why this decision has taken so long. I choose to change because I want to.**

"Wow." He said when he'd finished. "You really thought it through. I'm impressed." The kind of self-honesty she exhibited impressed him as well, and made him terribly sad. He only hoped she didn't hate herself more afterward.

"I did. I listened to you. From the first moment I saw you, you've been concerned with my comfort... How could I _not_ listen?"

"The same way nobody else listens." He answered with a wry grin.

She wrinkled her nose at him, and warmth spread through his chest when she did.

"So you're completely sure this is what you want?" He asked her seriously.

She looked into his eyes for a long moment. "Yes. I feel it's an opportunity I would be a fool to let pass me by. And before you ask, because I can see you will, no you can't dissuade me. My mind is made up."

He drew in a long breath and sighed. "Alright. It's your choice to make, after all. You know it's going to be blindingly painful, however brief that may be."

She nodded.

"You will likely stay unconscious for a while as your mind and body finish adjusting. If I'm not near when you wake up, come find me. You will have to learn how to find and use your power again. You will probably still be able to use your magic, but you might need a new wand. I'm not sure on that score. You will have something else as well as your magic, and I can teach you to use that to see, to breathe, to speak, and to fly."

"Fly? Really? You can fly without a broom?"

He nodded. "Since I was about eight."

"I'm looking forward to that now. I hate flying on a broom because I always feel like I'm going to fall off. If I can't fall..."

"We'll get to that. You and I are going to have to spend a lot of time together before and after classes and on weekends. You're going to be completely sick of me saying the same things over and over, trust me."

She shook her head with a little smile. "Sounds like bliss to me, Harry."

"Let's hope so. Please don't use my first name yet, not even when we're alone. It would be too easy to slip otherwise. I trust you, but everyone makes mistakes. Duncan... or Hidden Colours. That's my second name, the one Mother gave me."

She grinned then, but immediately covered her smile with her hand. "Hidden Colours... I like it."

He smiled at her. "Thanks. Now, for the logistics of the actual thing..." He got up and left the room to go to the next classroom down where he'd stored most of the desks and chairs from the birthday room. He picked up a couple of chairs and took them back to where Hermione patiently waited. He transfigured them both into heavy, thick blankets, and laid one of them on the floor in the large open space between the back of the sofa and the snacks table. He cast a cushioning charm on the blanket on the floor, and set the other one next to it.

"Come lie down, get comfy." He told her.

She did so, but with her head at the far end of the blanket, so he moved to sit next to her head.

"As a Svurtr, your magic will live in your blood as well as your Will. I will teach you how to control that later, after you wake up. Tomorrow or the day after maybe. It may take a long time for you to learn, just so you're prepared."

She nodded as she took in the information.

"I am going to rouse my magic, to wake it up as it circulates, to the point where I resonate with it. That's what you will have to do later, in order to use it. For me right now, that's all I will be doing. I'm going to cut my wrist, here." He pointed to his wrist. "You have to latch on, you have to suck as hard as you can and swallow as much as you can. The second I cut myself, my magic will begin to heal me, so you won't have much time. You have to not think about what it is you're doing, you have to just do it, do it quickly, do it completely. Clear so far?"

She nodded, eyes wide. "You will heal. Don't hesitate, don't think. Suck hard and swallow."

He nodded. "Good. Suck hard and swallow, and keep doing it until you can't anymore. You might have ten seconds or so."

She nodded again, eyes determined but scared.

"The blood will be regular red, but also a kind of shimmery purple, so don't freak out. Just start drinking and don't stop until you can't get any more."

"That sounds pretty. I won't hesitate."

"Good. You'll have plenty of time to look at your own later. Right now there's only one shot at this, so as much as you can as quickly as you can."

She nodded and steeled herself.

"Are you ready?" He asked her.

She nodded again. He raised his left wrist and she stared at it. She took a deep breath and let it out and her gaze became determined.

He reached down into himself and roused his blood, swirled his power within it and began to Resonate. He pushed his magic into his wrist, then raised his wand and used it to focus his power as he commanded it to _cut_. The skin of his wrist parted instantly in a long, precise incision, and to Hermione's credit she only glanced at it for a split second before she took his wrist in both of her hands and wrapped her lips around the cut. He could feel her pull at his veins, and she gulped and pulled and gulped, and she didn't spill a single drop. After five gulps the pull on his veins eased, and became more of a pull on his wrist, and he knew his veins had sealed themselves again. Hermione did as he had instructed, and continued to suck his wrist. The split skin gave her a little more blood, enough for another mouthful before the skin too healed and there was nothing left to drink.

Even then, she licked his wrist clean before she let go of it. She licked her lips and swallowed again, and there was no evidence she'd drunk any blood at all save a slight reddish tint to her lips.

"Lie back now. You might rip your clothes, that's what the other blanket is for." He picked up the blanket as she lay back, and he covered her with it.

"Auuch!" Her stomach clenched and she bucked under it. Her eyes squeezed shut in pain and she clenched her fist in the clothes over her belly. Another spasm hit, and she cried out again, and then the change started in earnest. She clenched her jaw as she tried to fight it, but it was hopeless. Her back arched off the floor and her face twisted in agony. Her mouth opened and with every shaking breath she screamed.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Smoke.

She smelled smoke. Fresh, but thin. Not a threat to her nest. There was a presence nearby as well. Not hostile. Mate? She tried to rouse herself enough to check, but was stopped by her weakness. She hungered greatly. She needed meat.

She opened one eye and saw the fire's glow on her left. The Nest was small, and she lay not upon her hoard, but upon some soft skin, like a large soft animal lay beneath her.

Strange.

The nearby presence loomed over her then, and she smelled the maleness of it. Her belly complained of hunger, but also of desire. If this wasn't her mate, where was her mate? Wait, did she _have_ a mate?

"Easy." The male hissed. He shifted her higher on the strange animal-hoard so that she was somewhat upright. "Here. Eat." He dangled a delicious-smelling morsel in front of her muzzle, and her stomach complained again. She opened her jaws and accepted the meat, but it was too large a piece to just gulp down, so she was forced to chew it. The flavour of it spread throughout her mouth and she found it pleasing as well as satisfying.

The male continued to feed her pieces held in his talons until there was no more, and she thrummed in contentment.

"My thanks, male." She hissed at him, "I feel better now."

"Lie back," He commanded, "You still need to rest and recover. I will feed you again when you wake." He shifted her back to her original position, and she found he was correct. She felt better, but she needed time to digest in order to gain strength.

"I will comply for now," She hissed, "But do not think to command me again, _male_." She emphasized his gender to remind him of his place.

The male, however, chuckled and nudged the side of her head with his. "This is not your Nest, _female_ , and as the one watching over you, I shall command and you shall comply or you shall not heal."

"Hmph." She grunted. "Understood. I comply."

"Sleep, I keep you safe."

She nodded, and turned to rest on her side as she slid into darkness again.

She woke again later to the most delicious smells. First and foremost was steak. At least, she was fairly certain it was steak. Beneath that was woodsmoke and a very faint undertone of spicy wildgrass and mint.

She opened her eyes and sat up, and discovered it was uncomfortable. Her clothes were too tight, including her bra and knickers. She slipped a finger into the leg of her knickers and pulled down, and that was some relief, but they were still too small. That's when she saw Duncan sitting in the chair next to the sofa watching her.

Heat crept up her face.

Way to go, Hermione. Boy of your dreams sitting next to you watching over you, and the first thing you do is pick a wedge in front of him. _Brilliant_.

"How do you feel?" He asked her as he handed her a fork with a slice of steak on it. She took it from him and shoved the steak in her mouth. It was delicious and filled her mouth with happiness.

"Mmmmm." She said as she chewed.

He chuckled. "Here." He said as he handed her the plate and the fork.

"Mm. Thank you." She said as she took it. She polished off the rest of the steak in a couple of minutes.

"Much better, thank you." She said when she finished. "What happened? What time is it?" The black, starlit window said it was likely after curfew.

He took the empty plate from her and handed her wand to her by the tip. "It's about three in the morning. You did everything perfectly, and have been asleep mostly since then. You've woken a couple of times to eat. You needed meat, so I snuck to the kitchens a couple of times. You should probably get back to wherever you stay and sleep until morning. You and I have a couple of long weeks ahead of us. Meet me back here when you wake up and we'll start training."

She nodded. She couldn't wait. "Did I change any?"

He nodded. "Taller, more muscle. Like me."

She stood and pulled him to his feet in an instant, then wrapped her arms around his ribs. "Thank you, Duncan. Thank you." He wrapped his arms around her in return, and she could feel that she was taller. The top of her head nudged the bottom of his nose when she hugged him now, instead of resting against his clavicle.

"Don't thank me yet." He said. "We don't know if I've hurt you more than I helped yet."

"I _feel_ better. I'm not afraid anymore. I'm thanking you, deal with it." She grinned up at him.

He chuckled. "Guess I've been told."

"See you tomorrow." She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, then beat a hasty retreat before her face could turn into a tomato.

She applied her three nondetections as usual when she was in the hallway, and then realized after she'd done so that she might not have been able to. Clearly she was able, so she considered it a successful test. She leaned against the wall for a moment and breathed deeply to slow her heart rate, shocked at her own brazenness. Yes, she'd been dying to kiss him for weeks, but so had every other girl in the castle. She'd wanted his lips, but that had been a bridge too far for even her new-found bravery.

She headed down a flight of stairs to the fourth floor, and realized with sudden shock as she bounced down the stairs there wasn't a single twinge from her knee. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and ran back up them as fast as she could, then back down them again. Nothing. Not a single complaint. No aching, no weakness, no tiredness. It was like she had a brand new knee. She strode quickly to her hideyhole then, tears of absolute glee on her cheeks.

Unfortunately for her, those tears of glee didn't have a chance to go away before they were reinforced by what she saw in the mirror. Her hair was beautiful! Perfectly coiled ringlets fell in a volumetric cascade from her crown without a hint of frizz or bushiness. Her hair _bounced_. Even the face her beautiful new hair framed was _gorgeous_. It hadn't _changed_ any, really, it was still _her_ face, but... her nose was straight and perfectly proportioned. Her cheekbones were in the perfect place and stuck out just the right amount. Her cheeks had lost the slight chubbiness she'd carried as baby fat. She looked like a _woman_. A _beautiful_ woman. She smiled into the mirror, and that's when more tears came. Her front teeth were perfect. Perfectly proportional to her other teeth and perfectly sized for her face. If anything, her canines protruded slightly more than they had, but that only accentuated her smile.

She shucked off her robes and uniform, and cried again at what she saw. Her bra and knickers were too tight and dug into her skin because her breasts had grown as well. They had grown rounder and more full despite her weight loss, and had evened out. She could no longer tell which one was larger than the other because each one looked exactly the same. They both very nearly spilled out of her poor bra, so she took it off. Even her nipples were identical.

"I look like a fitness model." She told the mirror. She flexed her stomach and could see the muscles bunch under her skin, but not too much. Just enough to see they were there. Even her arse was fit and muscley, and protruded pertly. Her dimples of Venus showed up in perfect relief, and she smiled at that. Everything was perfect. She was beautiful, head to toes - more than she had ever thought possible. She collapsed on her bed and wept that every dream she'd had since she was a child had come true.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"How _DARE_ you sign _my_ name to something so completely _vile_!" The common room echoed with Lavender's shrieks. Ronald's lobster-red face glowered even as his head attempted to retract inside his torso. "I used to think I wanted to _marry_ you, Ronald! Then you go and destroy my reputation out of petty jealousy and spite!"

"Oh fuck _off_ , Lav. As if I don't _know_ why you dumped me. Save the Poor Me act for Macfuckwits. The whole school can see you sniffing after his cock like a cow in heat. Have fun squeezing out twenty worthless scottish shitslingers while he's off fucking every other cow with her cunt in the air.

"And then you call me a fucking cow on top of it?! Fuck you, Weasley! You're insane with jealousy because a _REAL_ Wizard finally showed up and you know you're not fit to lick his boots clean. You're going to die an ugly virgin, loser!" Lavender shouted the last right in his face, her finger pointed between his eyes. Ronald's head came out of its shell and grew a dark red as he reached for his wand.

"EAT SLUGS, YOU FUCKING WHORE!!" He shouted, " _Slugulus Eructo!_ " Lavender's face was less than three feet from his own, so there was no possible way he could miss. Lavender didn't even have her wand out, so she had no defense at all. The sickly yellow bolt gathered around Ronald's wand tip and fired toward her, only to immediately encounter a shield spell and reflect back at him. It barely missed the tip of his wand and splashed itself over the knuckles of his hand.

Ronald barely noticed until he doubled over onto his hands and knees and vomited a quill-sized slug from his esophagus.

"You _ARSEHOLE_!" Lavender screamed, and stomped down on his wand hand with her heel.

Fred put his wand away while George walked out to the puking Ronald and stood over him while he shook his head.

"Sad to say, looks like MacFusty was right, brother mine." George said sadly.

"I'm just glad he wasn't about, or we'd be taking this one home to Dad to try and avert a blood feud." Fred said.

"We might anyway, depending on Miss Brown." George turned to Lavender. "Miss Brown?"

Lavender looked up at George. "Oh, no, I wouldn't take things that far. Not unless his slander went public and impacted my future prospects. I might get a trifle cross then. Right now he's just a sad regret. If he gets in my face again though, I'm kicking his bollocks up around his ears, just so you know." She smiled sweetly. "Pity he couldn't have turned out like both of you."

"Why Miss Brown, Do our ears deceive us," George started.

"Or was that flattery aimed at ours truly?" Fred finished.

Lavender smiled at them both. "Ask me on a date sometime and see." She kicked Ronald between the legs and sauntered up the stairs to the girls' dorms.

"Well, she's got attitude, certainly." Fred said to George.

"And those charms." George nodded back.

"If we weren't chasing the Chasers -" Fred started.

"We might be tempted." George finished.

Ginny shook her head from the steps to her dorm. "Last year this wouldn't have been anything. We'd laugh at stupid here and everything would go back to normal in a couple of weeks." Ginny said from the stairs where she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. "As it is this year, I'm concerned he's going to cause something with a major house or any of the French sluts. It might be a good idea to get Dad involved anyway. Maybe Stupid needs a year of Homeschooling to get his shit together and take things seriously."

"Sadly, we were sort of thinking the same thing -" Fred started.

"After what he did with our happy, clean little prank -" George continued.

"We're lucky Duncan is quick as he is -"

"Or we might be looking at several angry major houses -"

"Staring directly at us." They both finished.

"Actually kind of a shame, really." Ginny grinned. "Would have cut down on the competition."

"You're after the MacFusty as well, eh?" Fred asked.

"I get my way, you can just call him 'brother'." Her grin turned feral.

"Gotten very far yet?" Fred grinned back at her.

George made an exaggerated wink at his little sister.

"Shut up." Ginny's smile drooped into a frown and she stomped up the stairs to her dorm.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Neville pulled a chair out for Daphne to sit on. She did so, without ruffling her prim, strict demeanour in the slightest. Neville pushed her chair closer to the table and seated himself next to her. Luna sat on his other side, then on her other side sat Susan and Hannah. Opposite them were Penelope Clearwater, Eloise Midgen, Arielle Monserrat, Fleur Delacour, and Pansy Parkinson. Standing around the table beyond those seated were Tracey Davis, who hovered behind Daphne, The Patil twins, several witches from the Beauxbatons contingent, Sophie Roper, and Megan Jones.

"So." Neville cleared his throat. "What's this about?" He suspected it had something to do with Duncan, from the way the crowd of witches had formed around him and Luna and 'guided' them to the table.

"I think I speak for us all when I say we're concerned about Duncan." Susan said. She looked around the table. Neville followed her gaze, and saw most of the witches - Slytherins included - nod in agreement.

"We haven't even seen him at dinner in over a month. We want to know he's alright." Parvati Patil explained. "I haven't even seen him in the common room."

"Where is he? What's he doing?" Parkinson demanded. "We know he isn't with some witch, because most of us are here, except for the four morons, and the rest are accounted for."

'Ha!' Neville thought, 'And he thinks he isn't popular with the ladies. Feh!'

"Well," He said out loud, "I'll tell you what I can. He hasn't asked me not to tell anyone anything, or I'd not be saying a word - So I don't think he's doing anything secret. He goes to all his classes still, most of you know that. He still sleeps in his bed, though he usually shows up just before curfew or sometimes after. He's usually gone by the time I wake up at six."

"Zat ees no 'ealsy." Fleur frowned.

"He doesn't look any different, honestly. I'm inclined to agree, but after a week or so a lack of sleep starts to show around your eyes. Duncan looks just the same as he did first of the year." Neville pointed out.

"And you don't know where he goes or what he's up to?" Megan Jones asked.

Neville shook his head. "He hasn't offered and I haven't asked. You know how he is, if he was off doing something fun he'd offer to include people. The fact that he hasn't says to me that he's doing something unpleasant but necessary. So I haven't asked."

"It wouldn't be very fair to try and demand some of his obviously scarce time either," Luna said, "So here's a suggestion: Everyone who wants to, write him a letter. He won't be at breakfast, so you can't post it obviously, but if we ask Heir Longbottom to leave them on his bed... What do you think, Neville?"

"I could do that, certainly." He nodded. "I can't guarantee he'll answer, of course, but he'll at least get them."

"That is most generous of you, Heir Longbottom." Daphne said softly. Her eyes lingered on his, and he saw something in their sapphire depths he had not expected to see.

"Merely proper, courteous behaviour Heir Greengrass. As befits a future leader." He gazed back into her eyes, hopefully he showed her as much of himself as she had shown him of her. She must have liked what she saw, because he saw an almost imperceptible shiver run through her.

"Weel you be at dinnair, Heir Longbottom?" Arielle asked. "Would zat be a bon temps to give you ze lettair?"

"Oui, c'est un bon temps." Neville replied.

"Tu parles francais?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"Sois gentil, je continue d'apprendre." He smiled, and most of the french witches smiled back at him.

Arielle leaned forward across the table toward Neville. "Peut-etre a sa place, nous pourrions vous demander do nous faire visiter Hogsmeade?"

Neville's eyebrows rose as he pieced together the meaning of the sentence.

"I'm afraid Heir Longbottom is spoken for this weekend. Perhaps next time?" Daphne placed her hand in the crook of his arm. He looked into her eyes again, and saw only determination.

"Yes, as Heir Greengrass says. Perhaps next time." Neville smiled back at Arielle. What in Merlin's potted plants was going on? He leaned over and whispered so that only Daphne could hear. "Stay behind after and tell me what that was about." It wasn't a request. He saw her shiver again.

"Quelle dommage." Arielle grinned. "Next time zen."

Neville nodded. "I would be happy to. If you're looking for companionship, I know there are a few of my fellows who are much too shy to ask any of you lovely ladies, but they would be thrilled to accompany you nonetheless."

Arielle cocked her head to one side, but Fleur helped her out by translating it quietly into French. "Ah!" She said when she understood. "Mais oui, we can deal wees shy."

Fleur smiled at Arielle and then turned to Luna. "I have un question s'il vous plait?"

"For me?" Luna perked up. "I don't speak French well, but I'm happy to answer." She smiled back at Fleur.

Fleur pointed at Luna's bookbag. "Wat ees Poetry Clube? Est-ce la poesie? J'adore la poesie."

Luna actually blushed slightly. "It's a club I made for people about whom Duncan has recited spontaneous poetry, so it's kind of about poetry, but not really."

"Wait, MacFusty spouted poetry about _you_?!" Parkinson sat forward, incredulous.

Luna took her wand out and touched it to her Poetry Club patch, and its background became a pale blue, and bronze embroidery appeared. "Love ye well the moon and her ethereal radiance, for she is our Lady of moods and tides. She is our light in the darkness."

"Magnifique." Fleur smiled. "Eet ees only you een zis clube?"

Luna shook her head. "There is one other."

"Who?" Padma Patil asked.

"Hermione Granger." Luna answered.

"Seriously?!" Pansy stage whispered, "Now I _know_ he's a bloody saint."

Fleur and Arielle looked around at the other Beauxbatons girls, and all of them had blank expressions.

"'Oo ees zis Grangeur?" Arielle asked.

"Just a total freak." Pansy answered blithely. "A bushy-headed mudblood who seems to have finally gotten the hint not to show her stupid ugly buck-toothed face anymore."

Fleur translated the conversation about the poetry club to the rest of the French witches while Luna pointed her wand at Parkinson.

"Well Pansy," Luna said sweetly, "It looks like you've joined a club today."

"What?" Parkinson frowned, "What club?"

"It's now the _five_ morons with no chance at Duncan." Luna smiled smugly.

Pansy glowered back at her darkly. "We'll see about that."

"No, really." Neville cut in as he leaned forward with both elbows on the table to glower at Parkinson, "If you think you can spout a terrible, negative attitude like that and still have a chance, then you haven't been paying attention. Duncan _hates_ bullies, Heir Parkinson, with a passion. If you can change your attitude, then you might have a chance, but after what you just said I'm inclined to agree with Luna."

Pansy became aware that the entire assembly was staring at her, and not in a beneficial way. Even Davis and Greengrass - well, Davis was. Who could tell what was going on behind the Ice Queen's mask? She could tell she was in a disadvantageous position, so she backed down. It didn't matter anyway. She'd show them all when Duncan was kissing her feet. She'd show them all she could have whoever she wanted, and then when she was done with him she'd dump him and let one of these simpering idiots dote on her leftovers.

"Fine." She waved them off. "Perhaps I was a bit _hasty_ in my description of Granger." Lovegood, though - she was going to get some well-deserved comeuppance. Pansy would see to that personally.

"Why we no see zis Grangeur?" Arielle asked.

"Because," Luna replied, as she continued to stare at Parkinson, " _People_ in this castle have hurt her and bullied her and teased her so badly that she won't show her face in public anymore." She turned to Fleur and Arielle then, sadness in her eyes.

"Oo?" Fleur asked angrily. "Oo 'as 'urt zis jeaune fille?"

"I am ashamed to say that I have, indirectly." Neville said. "I did not stand up and say stop when members of my own House bullied her. Nobody stood up and said stop, not once."

"Neville's being noble, but he's not wrong. Even I failed to say stop." Luna admitted. "The ones responsible were mostly Ronald Weasley, Michael Corner, Cho Chang, Faye Dunbar, Mandy Brocklehurst, Romilda Vane, Lavender Brown, Draco Malfoy, and Heir Parkinson here."

Fleur Tskd. "C'est triste. Zair ees no way to see zis Grangeur? Peut-etre invite 'er to eat wees us?"

Luna shook her head. "Hermione is the top student in the entire school. She could be standing next to you and none of us would ever know. The only one who can see through her Disillusionment is Duncan."

"How does he see through Disillusionment?" Eloise blurted out before she clapped a hand over her own mouth.

Luna grinned at her. "He does something to his eyes. I haven't been able to ask him exactly what yet."

"Duncan seems quite skilled, oui? Quel age a-t-il? 'Ow old is 'e? Weel 'E be een ze tournement?" Arielle asked.

Luna smiled at her and shook her head.

"He _is_ very skilled, that's true, but he's only fourteen. He's not eligible, any more than I am." Neville answered. "So no chance at all of him being in the tournament. None whatsoever."

  
  


* * *

  
  


He hated the mystery of it. He desperately wanted to know which one it was, but the charade demanded he leave it be for the time being. In the end it didn't really _matter_ which one it was, he would dance to the tune Albus Dumbledore called, same as everyone else.

He popped another lemon drop in his mouth, followed by a cherry Philosopher's stone shaving, and the two danced deliciously on his tongue. The flavours intertwined and became greater than the sum of their parts and inspired him to dizzying heights of mental acuity.

Yes, whichever Death Eater played at being Alastor Moody, he played his part very well. Almost well enough. Unfortunately for him, the ghosts and the portraits served the Greater Good, though they did not know it.

Step one to isolate young Mister Potter had failed dismally, even though young Mister Weasley had performed adequately. That had been something of a surprise, but a welcome one. No, it was Potter himself who had invalidated the plan and acted against the Greater Good. At least, that's how it had appeared at first. His willingness to accept pain onto himself and keep it from others was exactly what the Greater Good needed. He would act nobly, he would put himself in harm's way. It wasn't a headlong rush to suicide, but it was certainly enough to work with.

Now there was another of Tom's misguided souls in the castle, and the time was ripe for beginning Step Two. Once the MacFusty name came out of the Goblet of Fire, he would be labelled a cheat, a gloryhound. His chivalric displays would be seen as the paltry window dressing they were, and his popularity would plummet. His sycophants would become his detractors, and that would set the stage for Step Three.

It was a pity he hadn't chosen any of the other students for a lover yet. A convenient 'accident' during the Second Task would push him toward revenge. After that it was simply a matter of stoking the adolescent rage and pointing him at Tom. He would play the helpful grandfather and dribble important information to the boy until he could get his wand back. There was still time, of course. He would find out who his true friends were once his name came out of the cup, and he could feed those names to the poor misguided soul that wore Alastor's appearance. That would ensure he ran headlong into death, and maybe if he were half-decent, he could even weaken Tom before he died.

That would be ideal.

He looked behind him, and Phineus nodded back at him from his portrait frame. Excellent.

Severus almost got to the door before it opened. "You wanted to see me, Albus?" He droned nasally.

"Severus." He replied in his best helpful wheeze. "I thought you should know it's come to my attention that we've a celebrity in our midst."

"I have potions brewing, Albus. I've no time for -"

"Young Mister _Potter_ is even taller than his father was, wouldn't you agree?"

Severus's eyes widened as he comprehended. " _MacFusty_!" He hissed.

"Have you noticed he has Lily's eyes."

"And her skill. He has yet to produce a less than perfect potion."

"Rare praise from you, Severus."

"It matters not. The Dark Lord will eradicate the boy."

"He will. I'll not keep you from your brewing, Severus. I merely wished to make you aware."

Severus bowed his head slightly. "Headmaster." He swept out of the office with his cloak billowing behind.

The door closed itself behind him, and Albus turned to Phineus. "He heard?"

"He did."

Albus drew a deep breath and let it out. "Good. If you find out who Alastor actually is, let me know would you?"

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Focus, Hermione. Don't try to be calm, don't rise above the surging of your blood. Feel it course through you. Ride it with your mind, circulate through yourself."

He squat upon his haunches with his eyes closed, just as he had when it was him learning to Resonate. Just as then, they could see their breaths puff out from their mouths in wispy clouds. Just sitting there with Hermione and teaching her what Mother had taught him brought him memories of her and made him smile. He could feel her progress, and it was outstanding. Barely a month had passed and she was on the verge of Resonating successfully.

"You know that makes no sense, right? How am I supposed to feel my blood now when I can't any other time?"

"Relax, Hermione. Don't _think about_ doing it, just _do it_. This magic is not about books or cleverness. It's in your bones, your blood, your feelings. I _know_ you have rage inside you, Hermione. I know you have sadness and pain and loss and joy and hope and fear. Stop deciding which feelings are okay and just feel. Be sad while you smile. Be happy while you rage."

"Happy while I rage..." Her breathing became slower, deeper. Her magic began to flow through her.

"Yes, that's it. Feel. Feel everything around you. Feel your awareness grow. Feel your magic flow through you and connect you to everything."

"I feel it." She gasped. "I feel you. I feel my magic. I feel everything!"

"Use your magic, not your voice. Scream at the sky."

Her magic swelled as she Resonated. Her chestnut curls flew back from her face as she raised her mouth to the sky and Breathed. A blazing bright lance of white and wintergreen fire shot upward into the sky from her mouth. She breathed for the span of five heartbeats, and then it was gone. Hermione pitched forward onto her hands and knees and gulped air as tears flowed down her face.

"I understand!" She cried, and wrapped her arms around him. "Oh Duncan I'm so sorry for doubting you. There's nothing... like nothing I ever... The sheer _magnitude_."

He grinned at her. "Good, isn't it?"

She squeezed him roughly and stuck her cold nose in his neck.

"So mean. You're a mean woman." He didn't bother to move though.

"Thank you, Hidden Colours." She whispered in his ear and then kissed his cheek. "That's _amazing_."

"And enough for today. You're going to be really tired in a little while." He smiled, then turned his back on her. "Come on, I'll piggyback you back to the castle."

"Deal!" She jumped on his back and wrapped her arms around him, and rested her head on his shoulder.

He Disillusioned them both and trudged back around the lake toward the castle. The huge carriage the Beauxbatons witches had arrived in sat serenely by itself while the huge winged Abraxan horses milled about together in the pen Harry had helped Hagrid build for the occasion. Hagrid himself wandered among the horses to brush them and preen their feathers for them. The whole group looked quite happy.

"Duncan?" Hermione said softly next to his ear.

"Yes Hermione?"

"Why won't you go on dates to Hogsmeade?"

He stopped in the middle of the field on the near side of the lake and just stood there, quietly breathing as he held her. A long moment passed.

"I'm Svurtr, Hermione."

"Yes, and?"

"Svurtr mate for life. We only have one Mate. We won't feel anything for anyone else. The idea of mating with someone who isn't my Mate is like... Like you making out with your dad. It's repulsive."

"You mean you only have one person in the world you can love and have kids with?"

"Yes... Mother said 'When the time is right and you're ready to be a Mate, you'll know who your Mate is when you meet them.' But... Apart from my impulse to hug you, I haven't felt anything for anyone I've met yet."

"Not even Luna?"

"Luna's great, and I suppose if I weren't a Svurtr I might try dating her, but... yeah, not even Luna."

"That seems... Lonely."

"Well. You can look at it that way, sure, but I prefer to think that there is someone out there for me. My perfect match. Love and fidelity are guaranteed for me, as soon as I find her.."

"Oh... Yes, that does seem nice. A lot of people would love to know that was guaranteed for them."

"I honestly just hope whoever it is isn't pure human."

"What? Why?"

"If my perfect match turns out to be a regular human, then we'll have love and it will be great. Humans _can_ mate for life, but they're not guaranteed to. What if she decides to cheat? What if we get divorced and she goes off with someone new? That would be fine for her, but for me there's no moving on. She would still be my Mate and I would love her and only her until I die."

"That's _horrible_." She whispered. "I hope she isn't regular human too. That would be such a tragedy."

"That's Mother's every day, Hermione. She only saved me because she can't have children of her own. Her Mate was taken before I was born."

"Oh _no_! That's _terrible_!" She squeezed him tighter. "I'm so sorry. Is there anything we can do? Do you know who took him? Or where?"

He shook his head. "I was going to travel far and wide if I have to after we graduate and look for him. Mother can't really, but I can. She's still quite young as dragons go, so there's still time."

"Oh good. Do you... could I come with you when you go?"

He smiled back over his shoulder at her, even though he knew she couldn't see him. "I happen to think you're brilliant company, I'd be glad to have you. Why did you want to know about Hogsmeade?"

"I... No, you'll think it's silly."

"Impossible to say since you haven't told me yet."

She blew white wispy clouds. "I wanted to go with you this weekend. Just you and me. It's asking too much, I know, I should just -"

"Like on a date?"

"Yes." She said in a tiny voice.

"I'll do my best. I don't really understand the whole romance thing, not enough anyway. You understand about me being a Svurtr, so hopefully I won't let you down too much."

"Is that a yes?"

"It's as much of a yes as I can give you without you being my Mate. Good enough?"

"I'll take it." She nuzzled her cold nose into his neck again.

He shivered, and started walking again back to the castle. "So what actually happens on a romantic date anyway? How is it different from just wandering around and talking to Susan and Hannah and getting to know them better?"

"You're the first boy I ever touched, Duncan. How would I know?"

"Same way you know everything else, Hermione. You read it. Don't even try to deny that you did, either. Besides, You're much more cognizant of the wants of your heart than I am, even if you don't think you are."

She was quiet for a moment before she spoke again, and her voice was soft and dreamy. "Well... If I _was_ your Mate... then I guess we'd hold hands? Have tea, just the two of us... Maybe feed each other chocolates? Wander around the shops with no real purpose and make excuses to touch each other? Maybe find gifts for each other that remind us of each other? Kissing though, definitely kissing."

"The kissing happens at the end of the date, right? Argie and Darcy watched movies like that and the kissing was always as the date was ending."

"Doesn't have to be. Just whenever the moment was right. The books I read were all about feeling when the time was right and just doing it because you wanted to."

"I like them already." He grinned.

"Dammit. I just realized I don't have anything nice to wear. You have to look nice on a date. The books are all the same on that point."

"Hermione, I didn't know what clothes _were_ four years ago. Whatever you wear will be great."

"What? Seriously?"

"Seriously. The first time I met the MacFustys I thought they were all diseased because their skins were all baggy and different colours and fluffy in some cases."

"What did you have on?"

"Nothing, of course."

"You were _naked_?!"

"Well yeah. Had been my whole childhood."

"Hm. Guess I didn't really think about it."

"Are you pouting?"

"No." She pouted.

"What are you pouting at?"

"Nevermind."

"Seriously."

"Yes seriously. Nevermind."

"Okay." He shrugged, but it had the effect of sliding her up and down his back slightly, and she bit her lip at the stimulation.

He trudged the both of them into the castle and up to the fourth floor, but stopped in the hall.

"Hey Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"It just occurred to me I might have doomed you romantically speaking as well. So I'm sorry."

"You think you've made me enough of a Svurtr to only have one Mate."

"Maybe. I hope not."

She tapped him twice on the shoulder and extended her legs backward, so he let her down slowly. She pulled him next to the wall and turned him, then pushed his back up against it. Neither of them could see the other, but he could feel her breath against his neck as she spoke.

"I _chose_ this, Hidden Colours. I would choose it again, even if I do only have one Mate. If I have a Mate, then love and fidelity are guaranteed for me."

He chuckled and hugged her. "Understood, fancybrains. No need to slap me with my own words."

She hugged him back and then let go. "Thank you again, Dunc."

"Unnecessary."

"Maybe to you. You've taught me to keep people out of my head, how to look into theirs, and how to _breathe fire_ , Duncan. To me, I'll never be able to thank you enough."

"You have a beautiful fire."

"So do you."

"I'm glad you think so. You should go rest, you'll probably fall asleep soon."

"I am tired now. See you tomorrow."

"Unless you sleep all through tomorrow, then I'll see you Friday." He dropped their Disillusionment, and grinned at her. She grinned back at him, and Disillusioned herself. "Sweet dreams, Hermione."

"You too Duncan."

  
  


* * *

  
  


"I never thought any good could come of being a Black." He said with a sigh. He stood in front of a bookshelf packed with books that had not been sorted alphabetically, but by subject. The particular bookshelf he stood in front of was labelled "R" - for Revenge. At least he didn't have far to look for aid.

He'd thought he'd have more hunger for it, that once he was free he would feel the fire, the _need_ to redress the wrongs he sat with. Instead he was cold and numb - far more so than he had ever been in prison. Every meal tasted of ashes and pointlessness.

He stood and stared at the bookshelf for a long moment as he tried to find any trace of a reason. A reason to care, a reason to move, a reason to set his feet on the path of revenge or any other.

The lone light in his desolation - if it could be called a light - was that Kreacher had given up his usual snide viciousness and even looked after him without being told, when he wasn't paying attention. He supposed Kreacher saw that he was the last of his family left alive and wanted to keep him that way so the ugly old mug didn't die himself.

He could still see the brightness that surrounded James and Lily when they were together, the joy they radiated as Lily's belly had grown larger and larger. Then that son of a bitch had ruined everything. James and Lily dead, Moony gone, Peter a shitsucking Death Eater, and little Harry... That shining little boy. So full of life and potential... He couldn't even murder the rancid filth who'd killed the precious boy. That was one he really wanted. Peter had taken Sirius' own place in Azkaban, his very cell, so if he ever found the desire to exact payment from him, he knew where to go.

He had no idea how long he stood in front of the bookshelf alone with his thoughts, but he was interrupted by Kreacher.

"Narsty Traitor Master has message from pretty Hogwarts Elf. Kreacher says only Kreacher brings message, but Pretty Elf bes ordered to only give message to Narsty Traitor Master. Kreacher did test message for bad magics, but message is only parchment, ink, and seal."

He nodded at the old servant. "Very well, bring her in."

The second Elf arrived with a soft _pop_ , and he could see she was fairly young. She shuffled forward and held out a folded piece of parchment to him.

"Mistress says sorry she forgot about you until she sees your freedom in the paper."

He nodded at the Elf as he took the parchment from her. "Thank you. Who is your Mistress?"

The Elf shook her head. "Mistress bes not wanting to say. Mistress says message bes enough."

He sighed. Denied again. Was this his life now?

"Thank you then, please give your Mistress my thanks as well."

The little Elf nodded, and vanished with another soft _pop_.

"Thank you Kreacher, that'll be all."

Kreacher bobbed his head once and vanished.

He took a seat in one of the ancient wingchairs and unfolded the parchment.

**Mister Black,**

**Congratulations on your exoneration and reparations. I apologize for the lateness of this note, but I had forgotten you until I read about you in the paper again yesterday.**

**He's not dead.**

**He's here, and I will try to convince him to contact you.**

**Regards,**

**Miss Witch.**

He stared at the note in his hands as his vision blurred and his chest clenched. Adrenaline surged through his blood and made his fingers tingle.

_He's not dead._

_He's here_.

Sirius quietly wept as his heart began to beat again and life claimed him.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Morning, Nev." Duncan grinned as he sat down next to Heir Longbottom.

"Duncan! Nice to see you again, have you decided to rejoin the rest of us poor mortals?"

"Wait, you mean I had a _choice_?!"

Neville looked at him through flat brows. "Ha. Ha."

Duncan grinned back at him. "Ask a silly question... And speaking of which, what's with the letters?"

"You've been disappeared for a month. The ladies in the castle were getting worried you weren't going to show up anymore. A bunch of them cornered Luna and I in the library on Monday night. I offered to make sure you'd get the letters since you were clearly doing other important things."

"Thanks Nev, I appreciate that. I really was, and still will be."

"No worries. What are you doing, if you don't mind my asking?"

Duncan shook his head. "Don't mind at all. Just training. Never can be too sharp."

"Well... damn."

"Come again?"

"I was hoping you'd say you were doing something private and family related, because it would be rude to ask to join in then. But no, you're just practicing with all your spare time, and now I have to ask because I can't afford not to devote more time to it. Honour demands."

Duncan grinned. "You're welcome. Monday morning, five am."

"Ugh. Sometimes Honour sucks."

"Better than having to climb out of the nest in the morning to go hunting so you can eat."

"Alright, yeah, point made."

Neville said something else, but Harry didn't hear what it was because a privacy shell descended over him just as he felt Hermione's hands on his shoulders.

"Good morning," She said, "I have to apologize to you so come to our room when you're done please." Her hands let go of him and the privacy shell dropped.

Neville was looking at him expectantly.

"Sorry, I missed that last bit. What was it?"

"I asked which girls you're taking to Hogsmeade this weekend. No doubt that's what most of the letters were about."

"Oh. You think? I haven't actually read any of them yet. In any case, I already promised this weekend to Hermione."

Neville's eyebrows shot up. "Hermione? Really?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Duncan didn't like the implication.

"Nothing mate, nothing. Just surprised is all. I guess I kind of forgot about her since I never see her. Good on you."

"You should make more of an effort. She doesn't have the top spot in the school by accident. She'll be finished sixth year by Christmas. She's brilliant. She's been training with me."

"Really. I guess I'll see her Monday morning then, unless I see you two around Hogsmeade. I'll be there Saturday, and apologize if I see you then. Gran would box my ears if she knew I had been so unkind to her."

Duncan smiled and slapped Neville's back lightly. "Good man, Nev. You're a good best mate and I'm glad to know you."

"Thanks, Dunc. Same back at you. I like who I am thanks to you."

"Nonsense. You were always in there, you just needed a decent environment to come out and play."

"If I'd stood up to Weasley sooner, I might have made that environment possible myself. Also, while I'm thinking of it - Parkinson said some extremely hateful things about Hermione during the meeting on Monday. It's obvious how you feel about that sort of thing, so I thought I should warn you."

Duncan nodded. "Thanks Nev, I appreciate it. I was already warned about her though. Apparently she and Bulstrode had plans to dose me with love potion. Thankfully nothing has come of it yet."

"Good. No wonder she was so smug at the table Monday then. The rest of us could see she had no chance at you with her attitude, but she seemed oddly confident. Glad to know you're already forewarned."

Duncan finished the rest of his breakfast and took an extra couple of danishes when he stood. "Back to training then. See you later, mate."

"Take it easy on the beginners later." Neville grinned at him.

Duncan just smiled a smile that said he would get the opposite of what he'd asked for. He Disillusioned himself as he left the Great Hall, and made his way to the fifth floor to meet Hermione.

He pushed magic into his eyes before he opened the door, and caught a glimpse of her behind it, so he jerked his head back and closed the door again.

"Grrr!" He heard through the door. It opened then, and she appeared in front of him. "Thought I was going to get you for sure that time." She smiled.

"Maybe someday." He winked. "How you feeling? Did you rest enough?" He entered their room and closed the door behind him, then locked and sealed it.

"I think so. I'm a little laggy, but nothing I haven't studied through before. As long as we don't breathe fire again today I think I'll be fine."

"Okay, good. I'm glad you're alright. I slept for three days after I Breathed the first time, but then I was eight years old."

"I would have loved to see that."

"You've seen my fire already."

"I meant a little eight year old you, curled up on a warm pile of gold coins." She pinched his cheek. "So _cute_."

"I have two older sisters, you know. I understand all about being patronizing."

Hermione laughed. "I'm only teasing, you know that."

"So, what's this emergency apology about? Here, these are for you. I thought you'd be hungry." He handed her the napkin full of danishes.

"I'm famished, thanks. I didn't think to go to the kitchens first." She walked over and sat on the sofa, and motioned for him to follow. "Last year I was minding my own business, just hiding as I did. I hadn't built the shower in my place yet, so I was in the dorm to have one after potions class and as I was leaving - Disillusioned, of course - somebody darted into the common room and knocked me down.

"He bolted up the stairs to the boys' dorms, and came back to the common room grinning like an idiot with Weasley's rat in his hands. I stunned him and the rat, and put them both in an empty classroom. Anyway, long story short, I interrogated the guy and he'd just escaped from Azkaban, his name was Sirius Black. He had supposedly murdered a bunch of people, but it turned out that Weasley's rat was actually an animagus - the very one who had committed those murders. The rat went to prison, and Black got released and exonerated."

"How does any of this warrant an apology?" Harry frowned.

"With everything that we had going on, all the training, it slipped my mind until now. Sirius Black is your Godfather. The last member of your original family. The rat was the one responsible for bringing Voldemort to your parents."

"Wow... I... I'm not really sure how to feel about that, honestly."

"You might not feel any kind of way about it, but Black does. He was desperate for news of you, and when I told him you had been killed in Nineteen Eighty-One, it seemed to break him. He clearly loved you and felt like he failed you for getting thrown in prison. I sent him a letter yesterday to say I'd try to convince you to send him one. I don't know how you feel about meeting new people, but he'd know about your past. He knew your first parents."

Harry nodded. "I should probably talk to him. I mean, I don't know the man, but if I were in his shoes I think I'd want that more than anything."

"That's what I was thinking. Giving him a chance to get to know you might be the most generous thing, and you might get someone who's on your side out of it. Someone besides me, obviously." She smiled.

"Thanks for that." He smiled back. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious how I ended up with Mother in the first place. Maybe he knows. How did you get him a letter?"

"I asked Lammy to deliver it."

"Have you considered binding her to you? She loves you already, you know."

"I could never do that! I'd be taking a slave, Duncan. That's _horrible_."

He shook his head. "You're wrong, Hermione. That's not what it is to them at all."

"How do you know?"

"I asked the first House Elf I ever met, her name is Brin. She serves the MacMillan family."

"Oh." She looked down at the danish in her hands. "I suppose I haven't ever actually asked."

"Do you like how you are now compared to how you were before?"

"What does that have to do with -"

"Just run with me here. You do, because you've told me so."

"Yes. The difference is night and day and I love how I am now. I love _who_ I am now."

"Right. That's the difference a House Elf gets when they bond with a family. They get to _live_ , Hermione. If they couldn't be here at Hogwarts, they'd wither and die. Bonding to you would mean that Lammy not only gets to live, but she gets to share your magic too. They don't have any of their own really. They use what they get from you in their own unique way, but it isn't theirs, not really."

"I... didn't know that."

"Furthermore, pretend that you live in a society of others just like you who all live by a code of honour that dictates your debts must be paid. If you were fortunate enough to receive the change and didn't have any other way to pay your debt..."

"I suppose I would be proud to serve as repayment." She concluded.

"Brin likened it to the oaths sworn by Knights to their Liege. They _want_ a family, more than anything, and they're _proud_ to serve. They love taking care of the ones who gave them that gift."

"I'll... think about it."

"Talk to Lammy. Give her your concerns on it and see what she says. We're going to be hopping all over the world soon enough, she'd be great to have along with us."

"Alright already, you made your point. I'll talk to her." She smiled at him.

"Good. In the meantime, I'll borrow her to deliver my note to Mister Black if you don't object." He smiled back.

"I just _happen_ to have parchment, quill and ink here." She said as she reached into her bookbag.

"As if you would ever be anywhere without them."

"Well I don't take them into the shower." She set out the parchment and ink bottle and lay the quill beside them. She looked up at him because he hadn't made any witty retort, but his face was red and he sat leaned over frontward with one ankle across the other knee.

He was thinking about her in the shower. She could see it in his eyes.

Something warm bloomed in her chest, and she wore a small but persistent smile for the rest of the day.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Filthy Blood Traitor Master, Pretty Elf is here again with a message." Kreacher shuffled into the den as he was going over the dowry paperwork.

"Well don't just leave her, send the lovely lass in!" He said with a grin.

She popped in a moment later, and held a sheet of parchment out to him. He took it, and bowed as graciously as he was able while seated.

"I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Miss Elf."

"Mistress asked This Elf to wait for Wizard Black's reply, so This Elf will wait."

"Very well, Miss Elf. I shan't be but a moment." He unfolded the parchment and nearly burst into tears.

It was his writing.

He had the same terrible penmanship as his father, in almost exactly the same way. He put a hand in front of his mouth and breathed deeply for a moment as he steeled himself.

**Mister Black,**

**My apologies for not having written sooner, I have only just this hour been informed of your existence. You know who I am, I'm told, but please never use that name. The name I use is Duncan MacFusty, as the MacFusty family took me in four years ago and that is the name I was given.**

**You have some knowledge of the boy I used to be and the family I used to have, and I must admit to some curiosity regarding such. I regret that our opportunity to know each other has been destroyed by the events of the past, but I am open to beginning anew.**

**If you are amenable, I and Miss Witch will be at the Three Broomsticks for a long lunch this Sunday at one pm. I will reserve a private room in my name should you wish to join us.**

**Regards,**

**Duncan MacFusty.**

Well, the boy had mastered formal language far better than James ever had. He reached into the second drawer of the desk and took out a clean sheet of parchment, then wrote his reply.

**Dear Mister MacFusty,**

**Your apologies are unnecessary, I am thrilled and humbled by your willingness to meet with me. Rest assured I will join you Sunday at one for a long overdue tete-a-tete. I will apologize in advance for my behaviour, I was never very good at not showing my emotions. I hope to not embarrass either of us too much.**

**Sincerely,**

**Sirius Black.**

He blew on the ink to dry it, then folded the parchment and handed it to the girl Elf.

"Thank you Miss Elf, for your service, and please convey my thanks to your Mistress as well. I look forward to meeting her again for the first time on Sunday." He smiled at her.

"This Elf will." She bowed and vanished.

"I get to meet him, Kreacher... Finally. I failed him for so long, but he doesn't hate me. That's something."

"Give it time, Muggle-loving Master. Kreacher is sure he will come to hate you as much as Kreacher does."

Sirius barked a laugh. "Go make me some lunch, you horrible frog-eyed monstrosity." He grinned at the aged Elf. Kreacher tried to hide his return smile, but didn't quite manage it.


	7. Chapter 7

Hogsmeade was just as busy as the last time he'd been there with Hannah. Unlike that time, however, he held hands with a girl. He hadn't expected it to be so completely unlike holding his own hand, though. He was amazed how much communication could be transferred just from a simple squeeze. Hermione managed to say everything from "I'm happy." to "Ooo, look at that!" with nothing but a simple squeeze of his hand.

Even without the communication advantage, he discovered he liked holding her hand. Her hand was soft and thin, but very nearly as strong as his was. He could smell her on his own hand when she let go. For some reason, he quite liked that.

"Scrivenshaft's first I presume?" He raised an eyebrow at Hermione.

She tucked her chin into her scarf and blushed at him. Of course Scrivenshaft's first.

He smiled at her and gave her hand a "Relax" squeeze.

Katie Bell and Penelope Clearwater strolled by while talking to two of the Durmstrang boys, and both of them smiled and said hello to Duncan. They didn't ignore Hermione exactly, they acted more like they tried to figure out who she was and where she'd come from.

Harry shifted his grip from Hermione's hand to her waist as he smiled back and returned their greetings.

"It's a good thing all the other girls in school already hate me, you're making them mad with jealousy." Hermione whispered to him as they continued on to Scrivenshaft's.

"If you mind, I can keep my distance." He whispered back.

"Don't you dare! I'm loving this. Every jealous glare is Ambrosia."

He chuckled and stuck his cold nose in her neck. She squealed and tried to shove him away using just her jaw and shoulder while she laughed.

"Meanie." She mock-pouted. Her arm slid around his waist and only let him go when they entered the shop.

Hermione made a beeline for the fancy parchments and spent ten minutes perusing parchment with floral patterns and scents, different parchment organizers, and small sticking-charm tabs meant to separate different topics within a sheaf of parchment. Harry used her distraction to purchase a Christmas gift for her and then wandered around the store before he joined her and listened to her explain all the different specialty parchments she'd found. He took two sheaves of parchment from the shelf, one with floral designs and scents, and one that was mint-themed.

"What are you doing?" She asked with a frown.

"Buying my date a present. I thought that was a thing that happened?"

She looked like she was going to argue, blushed, frowned, and then bit her lip.

"Just relax and enjoy your new parchment." He whispered.

Her frown lifted and she sighed, then let her lip go and looked annoyed while her neck and cheeks turned pink. "Thank you." She whispered.

He grinned at her. "My pleasure of course. Does it feel like a date yet?"

She smiled at him through lowered lashes. "Yes."

He sought her hand and interlaced his fingers with hers as she wandered about the rest of the shop. She bit her lip again when she looked at some of the fancy enchanted quills, and he knew he'd made a good choice. He paid for her parchment, and the shopkeeper put it into a bag for her.

He thanked the shopkeeper, and they left Scrivenshaft's.

"Tea next or Gladrags?" He asked as her hand slipped into his once again.

"You decide."

"Tea then." He squeezed her hand gently and set off for the tea shop. Apparently Hermione thought they would be going to the pub, but according to Harry's research, that wasn't where you went on a romantic date.

"Where are we -" She started, then figured out where they were headed by thinking of what shops lay in the direction they walked. She blushed again, but didn't say anything else.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the romantic date spot, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is." She said softly.

"I've never been inside, have you?"

She shook her head.

Madam Puddifoot's was a bastion of quiet during a normally sound-laden day, when students were laughing and chatting and playing in the streets. By contrast, the interior of Madam Puddifoot's was crammed with tension so thick you could make trifle from it. There were relatively few words, but hardly a face in the place was its normal colour. It was like the excessively pink interior somehow migrated onto the faces of its patrons.

Hermione chose a table against the far wall that seemed to be slightly more in shadow than the others. Harry was surprised to see Neville sitting at a table for two next to the window with Daphne, and _she_ was the one blushing. In fact, Neville had a look on his face that Harry had never seen there before. Neville looked relaxed, but _in control_. Like everything that happened around him happened according to his design. Harry thought it odd, but Daphne certainly seemed to like it.

The serving witch approached their table before Harry had a chance to figure out Neville's strange demeanour.

"Good mornin' Luvs, welcome to Madam Puddifoot's. What can I get for such a lovely couple?"

"I'd like some hot chocolate please." Hermione said.

"Ooo. That sounds even better than tea! Me too, please." Harry smiled at the serving witch.

"Could we have some extra marshmallows too please?" Hermione asked. Her hand snaked across the table and her fingers interlaced with his again as she blushed at the serving witch.

"Two chocolate sweethearts with extra sweets it is." She winked at Hermione before she headed back to the kitchen.

Harry chuckled, then leaned over the table and whispered, "That's it, I'm calling you Chocolate Sweetheart now."

Hermione blushed furiously and leaned over the table back at him. "In private you can call me whatever you want. You do that in public and I'll pull your lungs out through your nose."

Harry laughed at that, and every eye in the place turned to him. Neville raised his cup of tea at them with a smile, so he returned the acknowledgement with a nod and a grin.

"I forgot to tell you," He whispered to Hermione afterward, "Neville wants to start training with us Monday morning. I was thinking about asking Luna if she wanted to as well, but I thought I should ask you how you felt about it."

It was small and fleeting, but Harry saw the look of disappointment flash across her face.

"You and I won't stop where we are in training to let them catch up, will we?"

He shook his head. "That wouldn't be fair to you. I thought in the morning you and I could both help them and then after classes you and I could go do what we usually do."

She nodded and smiled again. "That sounds good. I'm loving our training. I love the things you're teaching me to do. I love teaching you what I know as well. It's made me really happy over the last month. Almost as much as breathing fire."

He smiled back at her. "What was the look of disappointment for?"

She quirked her mouth in frustration. "Stop being so observant." She relaxed and smiled back at him. "You weren't supposed to see it. I just... I just like having you to myself, that's all." She said in a small voice, then dropped her voice to a soft whisper. "You make me feel good. Like I'm not a freak."

The serving witch brought their hot chocolate then, so Harry didn't get a chance to say anything right away.

"Thank you, ma'am. How much do I owe you?" He asked her.

"You're welcome, dears. You can call me Nexie, none of that ma'am nonsense, you'll make me feel old. That'll be three sickles, Luv."

Harry fished out a galleon and handed it to her. "Keep it, as thanks for being part of our first date." he smiled at her.

"Aww, Merlin bless ye." She smiled back at him, then turned to Hermione. "Best keep this one." She winked at her again, then wandered off to deliver more treats.

"What do you think was running through my head the first moment I saw you on the train?" He asked Hermione quietly.

She looked down at the table and sipped her hot chocolate before she answered. "Honestly in that first moment I have no idea. I was caught in my own thoughts like a deer in the headlights. I thought you were gorgeous. I thought about kissing you. I thought you were going to attack me. I thought about how I could get away from you if you did. I was furious at you for getting through my defenses like that. After you started talking, I knew you weren't going to do anything mean, and I screamed at myself to say something, but I couldn't. Then I thought you probably thought I was a freak and I was proving you right. Then you left and I thought you were really nice and I kicked myself for being so stupid and afraid. I... actually spent the whole train ride watching you through the window." She blushed again and stared at her drink as she said the last.

He grinned at her. "I thought your hair looked really soft, and I liked how it was wild and free. I thought your eyes were a deep, rich colour that almost glowed in the light from the window. I thought your lips were a perfect shape and I wondered what it might be like to kiss you. I thought you were rather beautiful. That was my first impression. Then I realized the door had been locked for a reason and I was intruding, and you were probably waiting for others, so I excused myself."

Hermione's eyes went glassy. "You really thought all that about me back then?" She asked softly.

"Yes, I did. You're beautiful now Hermione, but not any more so than you were back then. It's just a little different. You were never a freak. You were never in the wrong. You only ever made one mistake, and that's listening to the arseholes who wanted to put you down; to shitmops like Weasley and Malfoy. I understand why you did, but really all you needed was a little confidence. A little belief in yourself. You're brilliant, you know. In every way." He squeezed her hand and smiled.

She sniffed and dried her eyes on her napkin. "Only you, Duncan. Only you. You didn't get to know me because you thought you could give me confidence, did you?"

He frowned and shook his head. "No, not in the least. In retrospect I guess it might look like that, but no. I'm not smart enough to have ulterior motives like that."

"Not false enough you mean. Do you have any idea how disappointed I would be if I found out you only became my friend to try and 'fix' me?"

His face twisted in disgust. "That would be _horrible_. I would be the worst of the lot if that were the case. I'd have to kick _my_ _own_ arse."

"I'd help... after I finished dehydrating myself with tears." She smiled at him.

"I like your tears on the inside. Once in a while is alright, but I much prefer your smile." He smiled back at her. "Thank you, Hermione."

She frowned slightly. "For what?"

"You're the only one who sees the real me. You know who I really am and to you I'm just... Duncan. For being my best friend. And for being my chocolate sweetheart. " He grinned and sipped his hot chocolate, but came away with a marshmallow on the end of his nose.

She laughed and plucked the marshmallow off and popped it in her mouth. "Thank you for being my best friend." She grinned at him.

He took an extra couple of marshmallows from the bowl Nexie had left them and dropped them in his hot chocolate. "No fair, shmallow thief."

"Get used to it, chocolate sweetheart. Yours taste better than mine." Her eyes sparkled.

"Because they're mine?"

She just grinned at him as she sipped her drink.

He put a few more marshmallows in his cup and smirked for a moment. He watched Hermione as she gave her own cup some more marshmallows, and then watched him. It struck him for the first time in that moment he didn't want to find his Mate. Being there with her made him smile inside his chest. He knew it wasn't really a romantic date since she wasn't his Mate, but the feelings she evoked in him, the mood that hung between them, it was new and wonderful. He enjoyed himself more than he ever had, and he didn't want it to end - which it surely would when he knew who his Mate was.

It would be worse if Hermione found hers, he realized then. Any boy could come through those doors and _poof_ , he could lose her just like that. He would be happy for her of course, but at the same time it felt like getting kicked in the stomach.

He finished his hot chocolate then, just to keep the mug between his face and Hermione's eyes so she wouldn't see him being sad when they were supposed to be having a lovely romantic day.

"Anxious to get going?" She asked over the rim of her mug.

"Chocolate sweetheart." he said with a fake smile as he pointed to his empty mug. "I just couldn't keep my lips away." _Don't see through me. Don't see through me_.

Thankfully, she just blushed and kept her own mug near her face. Did she have the same thoughts?

She finished her hot chocolate not long after, and stole a couple of marshmallows for later as they stood up to leave. Neville and Daphne had already left by the time they made their way to the door. She snuck her hand into his as they wandered down the street.

"Isn't Gladrags the other way?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah. If we go there though, then our date will be closer to over."

"Hrm. You bring up an excellent point. I am a bit thrilled you're not anxious to get rid of me." She shoved his shoulder with hers.

He smiled at her. "I'm enjoying myself too much. I didn't think I would honestly, since I don't have the faintest what I'm doing with regard to romance, but it turns out to be surprisingly easy with the right company."

She gave him a warm smile and rested her head on his shoulder as they walked. He didn't have any kind of plan really, he just followed his feet as they meandered. A handful of minutes later, he looked up and realized they were standing at the fence that marked the domain of the Shrieking Shack.

"Oh." He said. "Supposedly the most -"

"Haunted place in Britain, yes, I read it in -"

"Hogwarts: A History. Also happens to be a traditional -" He continued,

"Spot for first kisses, according to -"

"The student poll in the latest issue." He grinned at her and how in synch their thoughts were.

She laughed gently and they wrapped one arm around the other's waist as they stood side by side and examined the rickety shack in the distance. She rested her head on his shoulder, he rested his head on hers. It was just a rickety shack, really. Not much to look at. They were alone just then, without another body in sight, and he found looking at the old dilapidated building to be far less interesting than his date was.

He lifted his head from hers and flexed his right arm as he turned to face her, and turned her to face him. He was saddened by the thought that he and Hermione weren't Mates, but they were best friends, and they were together, and it was supposed to be a romantic experience for her - for them both, really. He decided then he would at least put his curiosity to rest and find out what it was like to kiss her. It would be entirely bland because they weren't Mates, but it was at least something they could share that they would always have between them, no matter what happened later or who they ended up with.

He reached out to cup her cheek with his free hand and looked into her eyes. She trembled slightly then as her eyes locked onto his.

"What are you doing?" She asked with a tiny voice.

"Keeping the tradition." He smiled wryly, and slowly closed the distance between them. Her eyes slid closed in anticipation.

It was the softest of brushes as their lips made tentative contact, but magic crackled between them as it happened. As he pressed his lips firmly to hers, a soundless explosion blew the snow from the ground around them. Hermione's eyes snapped open. His hand flew to his lips. They locked eyes again, this time in shocked _recognition_.

"It's _YOU_!" They cried simultaneously.

He wrapped both his arms around her, simply unable to be apart from her.

"I get to stay with you! I don't have to watch you fall in love with another witch!" She sobbed against his chest.

He held her close as he brushed her tears away and beamed his own joy at her. "I thought for sure you saw straight through me in Puddifoot's. The thought that anyone who came through the door could be your Mate made me feel horrible, but we're supposed to have a happy date, and I was determined to make it the best I could... but I get to stay with you! Our date doesn't have to end... ever!” He laughed as pure joy bubbled up through him. “I'm so happy it's you, Hermione. You're so brilliant.” He smiled down at her, and she crushed him to her.

She pulled his head down and pressed her mouth to his. He felt _her_ magic Resonate inside him. His magic reacted and he began to Resonate as well. He felt like he was standing in the eye of a hurricane. With every tiny movement of her mouth against his, lightning bolts shot across the sky. He consumed her mouth hungrily as his newly-awakened desire flooded through him. He felt his arms and shoulders grow hot first. Their hair blew around them in the wind they created as their lips slid across each other. He tasted her tongue for the first time. She slid it between his lips and ignited them both. He could feel them both burn in a blazing multicoloured fire that swirled around them and through them. His tongue entwined with hers as they devoured each other at the center of a swirling firestorm.

  
  


* * *

  
  


She felt warm and protected when she woke, mostly due to the arm that draped over her and held her close. She took a deep breath and smelled his unique scent. It put a smile on her face - a smile that shattered in a surge of panic when she opened her eyes and saw she was not in her hideyhole.

She turned into him and curled so that she couldn't see anything but his chest as she waited for the adrenaline spike to pass. She breathed deeply and as evenly as she could. She felt him kiss the top of her head.

"You're in my bed. Curtains are warded and sealed. Privacy shell too."

She looked up at him and he dropped a kiss on her forehead.

"I remember." She smiled, "Just a minor freakout. First time in a long time I've woken up anywhere but my own place. She reached up and captured his lips with hers. "Good morning, my Mate." She nuzzled into his neck.

"Good morning." He rumbled back and stroked her hair back from her face. "Best way to wake up ever."

"Definitely. Unfortunately I'm used to having my own bathroom."

"Take my housecoat, don't use the bathroom over there. Finnegan and Weasley are just disgusting. The girls' dorms would be far nicer smelling."

"Good tip. What happened to my wand?"

He reached up and backward and pulled her wand from the top of the headboard.

"Thanks." She kissed him quickly and pulled his housecoat over her shorts and T-shirt. She belted it and cast her nondetections on herself before she left and closed the curtains behind her.

"Ack, stupid cold floors!" She grumbled, not that anyone could hear her. She did see his slippers at the end of the bed, so she stole them and shuffled with a grin down the stairs and up into the girls' dorms.

She found an empty stall and sat down to relieve herself, and heard other girls enter.

"You see Longbottom yesterday?" One voice said.

"Yeah, with Greengrass for fuck's sake! He actually looked hot in a weird kind of way." Voice number two said. That one sounded like Lavender Brown - at least, Hermione thought so.

"At least Greengrass isn't stealing anything from anyone by lowering herself to Longbottom. You see that fucking slut with Duncan? Who the fuck was she?" That voice she knew. That voice had laughed at her along with Michael. Had probably denigrated her while currying his affection. It belonged to Ginny Weasley.

"Never seen her before. I thought she was one of the foreign tarts." The first voice replied.

"I saw them in Puddifoots." The second voice said. "Duncan was so bloody adorable. He had a marshmallow on his nose and he was so sweet. I'd never seen him laugh like that before. He's so hot and so cute at the same time, I want to cuddlefuck his brains out."

"Hah!" Weasley scoffed. "Get in line. The whole school is desperate to get him in a broom closet. Personally I'm thrilled Greengrass is out of the running at least for now. Somebody's going to hex the tits off that french tart, and it'll be back to free-for-all for the rest of us. I'm already halfway through my own batch of Amortentia."

"Well, the rest of us except for the four idiots." The second voice chuckled.

"Good luck. Didn't you guys hear he can't be potioned? If you come up with something else, let me know." The first voice said. "He did go to Hogsmeade with Bones and Abbott, maybe he'll take someone else today. Did either of you ask him?"

"As if." Weasley said. "He hasn't been seen anywhere for the last month, except at breakfast once, and I wasn't even there."

"Maybe he was busy working his way through four houses' worth of witches?" The first voice suggested with a hopeful tone.

Hermione took her T-shirt off and tucked it in the pocket of the housecoat. She flushed the toilet then and dispelled her nontedections. She pulled her shorts back up, and left the housecoat slightly open so as to suggest her nudity. Then she exited her stall and stood next to Lavender Brown, Ginny Weasley, and Sally-Anne Perks while she washed her hands. She let them stare at her for a long, tense moment.

"I'm not French." She told them, the cold fury in her voice barely restrained, "And Duncan was with me all month. I rather enjoy duelling, so if you'd like to start something, don't hesitate." She dried her hands as she looked each of them in the eyes. As she walked away she swept her hair over her shoulder to the front so they could see "MACFUSTY" embroidered in gold across the back of her housecoat.

She re-applied her nondetections as soon as she was out of sight of the bathroom, heart pounding in her chest, and ran back to Duncan's bed while she grinned like a Cheshire Lion.

"You look happy. Good trip to the loo?" He raised an eyebrow when she climbed onto his bed and closed the curtains.

She straddled him and leaned down to kiss him. "Brilliant." She grinned. "Let's go to Hogsmeade for breakfast and finish wandering around and snog a lot."

"Mmm. Now that is a plan. Turns out I absolutely adore snogging you. Who knew?" He replied with a smile and wrapped his arms around her to kiss her soundly. "Meeting Mister Black today as well, so we'll have to get a lot of snogging in before lunch."

"We can still snog after lunch too, you know."

"True, but I'll need to charge my Hermione battery in order to make it through the dry spell at lunch." He grinned and kissed her again. "I had no idea what I was missing, but now I just can't." He kissed her. "Stop." Kissed her again. "Kissing." And again. "You." And again.

She smiled at him as he showed his affection, and cupped his face in her hands as she kissed him back. "Wait til we start having sex. We won't get out of bed for months." She ground herself against his pelvis and was rewarded with facial contortions as his eyebrows raised, his eyes closed, and he bit his lip all at once as he groaned in pleasure. She could feel him harden beneath her, and it put a smile in her chest again.

"Magic's sake, Hermione. Do that again and we're starting right now. I can barely contain myself as it is." He breathed heavily and she could see wildness in his eyes.

"I wanted you from the first moment I saw you. You know that." She kissed him again. "Get up, get showered, and I'll meet you in the Entry Hall?" She got off him and moved to the opening in the curtains.

"Yeah, that's good. See you in a bit." He kissed her again, and let his fingers trail down her body as she moved away - which sent a shiver up her spine. She blushed at him and vanished as she cast her nondetections, and made her way quickly to her hideyhole.

She draped his housecoat across the back of her loveseat and stripped down to shower. She took perhaps a little longer than she intended to get clean, as the hot water reminded her of Harry's lips on her neck, his touch on her waist. Her efforts to soap herself took a southerly turn and she ended on her knees in the shower while her muscles clenched and quivered involuntarily. Consequently, he was waiting for her in the Entry Hall when she arrived.

He was surrounded by girls, as usual.

She saw Susan and Hannah, GInny Weasley, Eloise Midgen, and several of the Beauxbatons witches crowded around Harry and Luna.

"There you are." He grinned when he saw her, and came forward to kiss her. "Ready to go?"

"If I'm not taking you away from anything...?" She slipped her hand into his, and it put a smile on his face. Luna grabbed his other hand and smiled at her as well.

"No, we were just chatting while I was waiting for you." He smiled back at her, then turned to the crowd. "Talk to you all later, ladies." He gave them a winning smile and then repeated his exit in French.

The three of them exited the school and headed toward Hogsmeade, and Harry whispered in her ear.

"I hope you don't mind if Luna comes along, they were kind of pestering her with questions about me and you and us."

"Not at all." She whispered back. "Luna's my friend too, and we have been kind of hiding from everyone recently. Are you alright with subjecting her to your awkward Godfather meeting? Is she alright with it?"

He kissed her earlobe and turned to Luna.

"I have a meeting with my Godfather at one today. You're welcome if you want to come, but I've never met him before, so it's probably going to be pretty awkward."

Luna smiled back at him. "I'd love to! I thought you knew your whole family?"

"How is your Occlumency coming?" He countered.

"Check me when we get to the village if you want. I've been working really hard on it because I really want to know what you want to tell me." She smiled back at him. "I'm guessing it has something to do with Hermione's new look."

Harry put his arm around Luna's shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "You could say that." He said.

"Also, I'm guessing there's been a change between the two of you, since you didn't kiss before." Luna noted.

"That kind of ties into it, Luna." She said.

"Oh, okay. I'll wait impatiently then." Luna frowned with a mock pout.

"Sorry Luna." She let go of Harry's hand and moved to Luna's other side and sandwiched Luna with Harry. It put a smile on Luna's face, so they walked the rest of the way to the village like that.

"Three broomsticks first, so I can reserve the room." Harry said when they arrived.

Madam Rosmerta confirmed the reservation for one that afternoon, and he bought all three of them a butterbeer while he was at the counter, and brought them to the table Luna and Hermione sat at.

"Alright, everything is set for lunch. Are you ready Luna?" Harry said as he sat down.

Luna took a deep breath and let it out as she settled her thoughts and erected her shields. She nodded to Harry.

"Just look into my eyes." He said with a smile.

She did, and Hermione could see the concentration on Harry's face. She could _feel_ his Will focus on Luna. Luna frowned almost immediately, and her look of concentration intensified. Beads of sweat began to form on her forehead and upper lip as their mental battle raged. It went on for long seconds, and then Harry relented with a smile.

"That's really good, Luna!" Harry said. "You still need some work, but you'd stand up to a cursory intrusion. A couple more months and you'll be unreadable."

"Is it good enough for you to let me in?" Luna asked with hopeful eyes as she wiped the sweat from her face with a napkin.

"I think so." Harry nodded. "You've waited this long, can you wait until lunch when we have a private spot? I have the feeling Mister Black is going to ask me where I've been and what happened, so we can just fill you both in then."

Luna nodded with a huge grin. "I suppose I can wait that long."

Harry grinned back at her. "Thanks, Luna. I just hope you're not too cross with me for lying to you when I tell you the truth."

She frowned at him again. "You've been lying to me?"

Harry nodded again. "To everyone, really. Not you specifically."

"Oh, about your past and such. That's fine. I thought you were just lying to me. I was going to give you a good hexing."

"You might still want to after you know the truth. It's alright if you do, if I deserve it then I deserve it." He smiled back at her.

"Well maybe just a little then." She winked at him.

Hermione felt the hairs on the back of her neck bristle at the thought of Luna hexing him, but even as the anger surged down her shoulders into her arms, she could tell Luna was only teasing and dismissed it. She was not accustomed to having such a strong reaction to possible danger to someone else, and the intensity of it surprised her, even as she was consumed by the need to protect Harry.

Harry, unfortunately, seemed to catch on to her sudden burst of emotion.

"Alright Hermione?" He asked.

She took a sip of her butterbeer and licked her lip to capture the foam stuck there. She nodded back at him after that. "I... Just not used to these feelings yet. I know you were only teasing Luna, I know that, but I still got ready to fight you."

"Yay new feelings!" Luna grinned and hugged her. "Tell me all about it. We haven't ever talked about boys yet."

"Um, I can go wander about if you want a few minutes to yourselves..." Harry offered.

Luna sighed. "You are such the gentleman, Duncan. Thank you but it's unnecessary, we can talk about you while we walk around."

"Oh. Okay then..." He took a swig of his butterbeer to hide the blush. Hermione could feel the hard, sharp feelings in her chest melt and turn gooey when she looked at him like that. A month ago she'd have been enraged and annoyed by that, but at that moment it felt sweet. It felt warm, and it felt _right_. She couldn't help but smile at him.

"You are _so_ in love with him." Luna whispered to her. "It's obvious. How far have you gone?"

"Am I? Is that what this feeling is?" She whispered back. "I mean, it's like all kinds of different feelings all wrapped up in one big fluffy blanket, and it's easy to confuse with being excited or angry or annoyed."

Luna giggled and hugged her again. "That is _exactly_ how my mum used to tell me what being in love was like. I'm so happy for you Hermione. It's obvious he feels the same about you."

"Really? You're not upset? I see how you look at him too you know."

Luna smiled. "Well... I won't lie, it's hard not to want him. I could tell he didn't feel the same though. Really I'm just happy it's someone I like too. You deserve something good, Hermione. You both look great together."

"Thanks Luna, that means a lot to me. I didn't want to lose you as a friend."

Luna finished her butterbeer and licked off her own foam moustache. "You're important to me too, Hermione. I only have you and Duncan you know. I'm trying to make friends with other nice people, but most of them are going back to Beauxbatons. Nobody here wants to be my friend except you and Duncan."

She smiled at Luna. "Their loss. More Luna for me and Duncan."

Luna grinned back, and Hermione finished her butterbeer.

"Ready to go then?" Harry asked.

All three stood and pushed their chairs in, and exited the Three Broomsticks. Gladrags was only three doors up, so they wandered there with Harry in front while Luna and Hermione whispered.

"So? How far have you gone?" Luna asked.

"Just here to Hogsmeade." Hermione pointed to the far side of the village where the Shrieking Shack stood. "Farthest we've gone is over to the lookout spot."

Luna giggled. "I meant have you done any naked things yet."

"Oh!" She exclaimed, which caused Harry to turn and look at her with an eyebrows raised, as if to inquire whether she were alright. She could feel the heat rise into her cheeks as she remembered feeling him swell beneath her that very morning. "No, nothing like that yet." She whispered back to Luna. "We did sleep together last night, but it was just sleeping. He hasn't even touched my breasts yet, though I could tell he wants to. I want him to as well, but we're both not sure we're ready for that just yet."

"Did you talk about sex then?" Luna asked as they stepped into Gladrags. Harry went to look around while she and Luna continued their whispered conversation.

"Not as such. More like we could each see what the other was feeling, and just didn't do what we obviously wanted to. It was really sweet and tentative. He cares... It's so strange to say, but he _cares_ about me. About my feelings. I'm not... I've never..."

Luna smiled wistfully. " I know what you mean. I hope it goes that way for me. Who knows, by the time I find someone interested I might be completely impatient."

"I don't think you'll have long to wait at all, Luna. You're pretty and happy and smart as anything. Don't be afraid to go get one you want too. Duncan likes it when I'm aggressive, I can't imagine he's the only one."

"Oh he does, does he?" Luna waggled her eyebrows at her.

She snuck a glance over the clothing racks at Harry, where he discussed something animatedly with the sales witch. "There's no need to hold back when it's just the two of us, and sometimes I want his arms around me, or his hands on me or... or now, his lips. I don't know if he's just a great kisser or what, but it's amazing what snogging him..." She broke off and fought the heat in her cheeks.

Luna pulled a sparkly sequined dress off the rack and held it against herself as she spun around and looked in the mirror.

"I like that, it suits you." She told Luna. "It would go nicely with your radish earrings as well."

Luna held it up against Hermione then, and wrinkled her nose at it. "I think I agree. You would look better in a light blue... maybe pink? No! Cream. Cream and gold would be perfect with your hair colour."

"Hm. I've never actually considered it before. I've always been more concerned with being invisible entirely."

"Can't have that anymore, it's up to you now to put every other witch to shame so they know they could never compete with you." Luna said fiercely. "You _are_ going to be visible most of the time now, right? Now that you and Duncan will be together all the time?"

She bit her lip at that. She hadn't thought about that. She supposed she would have to stay visible just to sit with him in classes. She had never been slovenly or unkempt, but she supposed it couldn't hurt to spend an extra few minutes on her hair in the morning. She also wouldn't be able to wander about on weekends in her sweats.

"I suppose I'll have to.” She sighed, “Help me look for some cute weekend outfits?"

"Yay!" Luna hugged her again and they got down to some serious shopping.

Two hours and half an argument with Harry later, the three of them exited Gladrags with several bags each, including Harry. He had tried to pay for everything, and she had only grudgingly let him have his way after he'd pointed out that Christmas was coming and she should save her money for that. He was right about that, dammit. She had decided to get him something really nice for Christmas, to pay him back as much as she could. It felt nice he wanted to buy things for her, but it rankled as well. She didn't like feeling like she owed anyone, especially Harry. She already owed him more than she could ever repay.

He, on the other hand, wore a happy smile at the outcome. If their positions were reversed, how would she feel? She supposed she would be happy she could do something nice for someone she cared about -

Before she could analyse any further, a large regal-looking owl wearing a black hood with a gold symbol on it dropped out of the sky and hovered before Harry. He put his arm out for it to land on, and it did. He took a letter from the holder on its leg.

"I'm sorry I don't have any treats on me, would you like something from the tavern?" He asked it.

The owl swiveled its head one way then the other with a "Krrr". It then flapped its wings and took off back over the south end of the village.

"I don't think I've ever seen you get mail before." Luna said.

"I've never gotten mail before." Harry said with a big smile. "This is my first time. Did you recognize the emblem on its hood?"

She shook her head. It looked a bit like the insignia at Gringott's over the V.I.P. counter, but she hadn't gotten a good enough look at it before the owl had flown off.

Luna shook her head as well. "No, sorry."

"Here, give me your bags so you can open and read it." She said, and took his bags from him.

"Thanks." He grinned, and kissed her happily. He stole a quick cheeky kiss on the heels of the first, and then unrolled the parchment. He scanned the message and frowned briefly before his eyebrows shot toward his hairline, and he looked up from the parchment directly into her eyes. Shock warred with apology on a background of giddy happiness for a long moment. He finished reading the letter then, and took their bags as he handed her the letter.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. I didn't know. I couldn't even imagine that... I mean, I'm completely over the moon, but... If you aren't, then I'm really sorry."

She frowned. She knew the quickest way to understand what he was on about was to read the letter, so she did.

**Dear Heir Potter,**

**I must offer our most sincere apologies on behalf of Gringott's management. Every effort we have made toward breaking the redirection of your mail has failed. This left us no choice but to assume that the redirection of your mail occurred at the highest level of your government. Imagine my surprise when I was alerted this morning that the redirection had simply ended, without any further effort.**

**This led me to investigate why your redirect had expired, and I was surprised and overjoyed to learn of your recent nuptials. Congratulations on your marriage to Miss Granger yesterday. As she is now a Potter, please bring her with you when you visit over the holidays. She will need to be informed of several of the Potter family provisions, as well as her new responsibilities and privileges.**

**There is much to discuss, so please visit us as soon as possible. I will make myself available to you at any point over the Christmas holidays, as our discussion may take several sessions.**

**Congratulations again and our collective best wishes,**

**Kneescythe, Accounts Manager.**

She read it twice to be sure what it said, and looked up at him.

They were married. _Married_! An excited bubbly feeling filled her chest. His eyes were scared but hopeful. She smiled as the excitement filled her up, and launched herself at him to wrap her arms around him, and she kissed him deeply.

"Looks like we have some talking of our own to do, _husband_." She whispered in his ear. She kissed his neck after that, and then nibbled his earlobe.

He shivered when she did that, and leaned back to look at her. "You're not cross?" He asked in a small voice.

She kissed his mouth again, as gently and with as much feeling as she could, then pulled back and looked him in his deep green eyes. "Thrilled." She smiled.

"Oh good." He seemed to deflate then, into a relaxed smile. "Me too. We have to talk about your plans for Christmas then. Tonight?"

She nodded and then took her bags back from him.

"Sorry Luna, didn't mean to ignore you. We'll show you the letter at lunch?" She looked at Harry. He nodded.

"That's okay, you're allowed to have private business when you're a couple, you know." Luna said sagely.

"Well I appreciate your patience and accomodation, Club Sister." She said with a grin. Luna smiled back at her.

They spent an hour browsing through Honeydukes before they decided on their purchases - Sugar quills, tooth-flossing stringmints, pink coconut ice, jelly slugs, liquorice wands, and chocolate frogs.

When they left Honeydukes it was close enough to one o'clock that they just headed to the three broomsticks. Madam Rosmerta waved them on into the private room, and they deposited their bags in one corner of the room. Hermione pulled her wand out at the same moment Harry pulled his out, and they interwove privacy shells with intruder charms and protection wards. Harry went to the bar and ordered lunch for four, which was delivered shortly thereafter.

"Now we just have to wait for Mister Black." Harry said as he sat beside Hermione.

Thankfully they didn't have long to wait. There was a knock at the door barely five minutes later. She cast _Nullus_ and _Mixtionis Perfectus_ on herself and stood next to the door with her wand out as Luna opened it.

It was indeed the image of Sirius Black who entered. He closed the door behind him, and turned to face Harry's and Luna's wands pointed at him.

"Wand on the table if you please." Harry said.

Sirius took a sharp breath, then nodded. "Of course." He took a wand out of his robes and lay it on the table.

"And the backups." She whispered from behind him as she touched the tip of her wand to his neck.

He sighed. "I should have expected that, to be honest. You don't disappoint, Miss Witch." He reached around to the small of his back and removed another wand, then one from his ankle. He lay them both beside the first. “I thought for a moment you were Miss Witch.” He smiled at Luna.

"That better be all of them." Harry said with a hard edge to his voice and a frown.

Sirius removed his robes and revealed a regular grey button-down shirt and black slacks. He rolled up his shirt sleeves and pantlegs.

"I'm sorry, all of you. I should have just done that first, I didn't think about it from your perspective. You don't know me and have no reason to trust me. May I sit?"

"Go ahead." Harry said. Sirius sat, but Hermione stayed standing and pointed her wand at him, ready to stun.

"How did I keep him from transforming?" She asked him. "Answer incorrectly and you wake up elsewhere."

Sirius smiled as he looked to the source of her voice. "You glued the backs of his hands to the desk, his feet to the floor, and the desk to the floor. Brilliant, really."

She cancelled her nondetections and sat down next to Harry. "It's him."

"Brilliant, capable, and beautiful to boot. A genuine pleasure to meet you finally, Miss Witch." Sirius grinned.

Harry grinned at her and slipped his hand into hers under the table. Then he turned back to Sirius. "So, why don't you start Mister Black? I would love to hear more about my first family and how I came to be alone on a Hebridean bluff as a one-year old."

Sirius blanched. "You _what_?"

"I'll get to that later, you first. Please, tell me about my first family. We have plenty of time, relax and eat if you want while we talk."

He nodded. "Alright, but please stop the Mister Black stuff. You used to call me Padfoot. I'll take that or Sirius. Mister Black makes me feel like my father is standing nearby." He shivered.

Harry nodded. "As you like, Sirius." He turned to Luna. "In order for this to make more sense Luna, you should know that my first name, the name I was born with, is Harry James Potter. Sorry I had to keep it a secret for so long." He smiled at her.

Luna's eyes went wide, and a little smile played with the corners of her mouth, but she didn't say anything, she just nodded once at Harry and turned rapt attention on Sirius.

"I suppose the first thing you should know is that my family - The Blacks - are horrible, horrible people. Or were, at any rate. I'm the only one left. The family motto is Toujours Pur, which should tell you enough to know they weren't the happy sort. I was the happy sort, and never fit in at home. It wasn't until I met your father on the train to Hogwarts that I learned I wasn't some kind of freak, I was just _a good person_.

"James opened my eyes. We were friends immediately, but my family wouldn't allow it, so I left them. James's parents - your grandparents - took me in without batting an eyelash, and we became brothers in all but blood. He fell in love with your mother in fourth year, but she hated his guts to begin with. Called him 'An ill-mannered, puerile, overcompensating bully'.” Sirius chuckled as he recalled the memory, “To be fair though, we actually sort of were. There were four of us before Lily - your mother. James, me, Remus, and Peter. We called ourselves the Marauders and we were known for pulling pranks that no-one could pin on us."

"Like the Weasley twins." Luna nodded. "Though they haven't attempted anything after their mistake with Dunc- Harry." Luna gave him a little grin.

"What happened?" Sirius asked, concerned.

"I sort of challenged the twins to do their worst, so they made a gift box to throw a pie in my face. That would have been funny, I'd have laughed at that. Their little brother - a bully Hermione and I have the misfortune of being Housemates with - switched their meringue pie filling with bubotuber pus. I managed to keep anyone else from getting hurt by it, so I honestly just let it go and let Ronald have his petty revenge. If it had hurt anyone else I'd have had to take other action, but luckily it was just me." Harry explained.

"To the Veil with anyone else, I'm glad _you're_ alright Harry." Sirius sat forward, pain and worry in his eyes.

Harry actually smiled a little at that. "I'm fine. Madam Pomfrey neutralized it and fed me boil-removing potion. What happened to get mum and dad together?"

Sirius relaxed, and his remembering smile returned. "James did, honestly. After a prank I pulled on Snivellus almost went too far, he sort of grew up overnight. He decided that we were being bullies, and that he would have to get serious about his future if he ever wanted your mother to be part of it. He concentrated on his grades and on being the kind of man he wanted to be. By sixth year you wouldn't have recognized him, and that's when Lily finally accepted his request to take her to Hogsmeade on a date. They were married shortly after graduation, and you came along two years after."

Harry frowned. "I don't like the thought that my father was ever a bully, but at least he grew up. Did he ever apologize to... whoever Snivellus was?"

"You'd call him Professor Snape. Apologize? No, I don't think there was ever... There was a lot of bad blood there, Harry. Snape had designs on your mother and hated James for taking her away."

"Hmph." She scoffed. "As though she were some kind of possession rather than a thinking breathing living person. Lily made her own choices."

Sirius smiled at her then. "You're more right than you know. Nobody could ever make Lily do anything she didn't want to. We used to regularly catch trouble from McGonagall _and then_ Lily after a prank." He turned back to Harry. "Both your parents were the best of people, lad. I miss them more than I have tears to say."

"What happened to them? I mean, Hermione has told me what was in the papers, but you were there, you know the truth." Harry asked softly.

"I found -" Sirius's voice hitched, and he took a deep breath before he continued. "I found your mum and dad after the fact. That snake-sucking sonofabitch murdered them in their own home. That was the night I made the biggest mistake of my life, Harry. I should have taken you from Hagrid by force if necessary and left the country with you and raised you myself. That's what your mother and father wanted. I was - am - your Godfather, for Merlin's sake... but I didn't. I let the fact that you weren't in immediate danger sway me toward killing the traitor, and we've both suffered for it since. I'm so sorry, son. I'm so sorry." Tears tracked down his cheeks as he finished, but he didn't acknowledge them, he only looked at his own clenched fists on the table.

"I don't understand." Harry said. "You say Hagrid had me. You saw that with your own eyes."

Sirius looked up at Harry and nodded.

"Then why would Hagrid give me to some muggle? How and why did I end up there? Why was the muggle then found dead in a jail cell for killing me when I am clearly not dead? How did I get to Mother in the first place?"

"Good questions, Harry. Ones I mean to find the answers to." Sirius replied. "If I might ask... who is Mother? Who did you end up with?"

She squeezed Harry's hand then and leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Do the transfiguration again. Luna hasn't seen Mother, and it might help him understand you before you start telling your story."

Harry smiled back at her and whispered in her ear. "She's your mother too now." Then kissed her neck gently. A thrill ran through her, partly from the kiss and partly because she realized he was right. She had a black dragon for a mother-in-law.

Harry pulled his wand out and transfigured his empty plate into a model of Mother six inches high.

"That's Mother." He said. "She raised me until I was ten. She told me I just appeared on a bluff opposite her nest, crying and dying of exposure. She said an eagle landed on me and started to eat me, so she ate it and took me back to her nest. I was leaking bright red, and had started to turn blue by the time she healed me, so she named me Hidden Colours. She taught me to live and to hunt, and how to use my magic to fly and breathe."

"Wait wait..." Sirius interrupted with a hand up, palm toward Harry, "You were taught to use wandless magic by a black dragon as a baby? Is that what I'm hearing?"

"Harry taught me to breathe fire last month. That's what we were doing, Luna. Sorry I couldn't tell you." She said as she squeezed Harry's hand and turned to look at Sirius. "I could demonstrate for you, but you wouldn't like it."

Sirius's face smoothed back from his frown as he saw she was serious.

"Yes, Sirius. That's exactly what you're hearing." Harry said calmly as he turned to Luna. "Now that you know, I can - _We_ \- can start teaching you too, if you'd like."

Luna's eyes began to water. "Today just keeps getting better and better. When can we start?"

"Tomorrow morning at five. Neville will be there too."

"Longbottom?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, he's my best mate."

Sirius smiled. "Well at least that went according to plan, if too late. Neville's mother Alice is your Godmother. You were supposed to grow up together."

Harry grew a genuine smile then. "I didn't know that."

"Frank and Alice Longbottom are good people. Your mother and father trusted them, and they trusted your mother and father. Your mother was Neville's Godmother."

"I can see I'm going to have to talk to Nev soon." Harry said.

"How did you come to be Duncan MacFusty if you were raised by a dragon?" Sirius asked.

"I said Mother raised me until I was ten, didn't I?"

Sirius nodded.

"When I was ten, Mother took me to the Conclave to Declare me to the rest of the Svurtr."

"Declare...? For what?" Sirius asked.

"Being Declared is being recognized as an adolescent. It means you can hunt for yourself, you can breathe, you can fly, and you know to respect all the laws. It lets you leave the nest and go build one of your own in order to wait for the time when you meet your Mate. When you're old enough to become a Mated pair, you're considered adult."

"So you were Declared when you were ten?" Luna asked.

Harry nodded to her. "Not without a fight though. Most of the Conclave stood on the very edge of disrespecting Mother because of her choice to raise me, and they did not like the idea of a pinkskin - a human - being Declared as a Svurtr. One adolescent was ready to Challenge me to prove that pinkskins didn't deserve to be accepted."

"Challenge you to what?" Sirius asked.

"Among the Svurtr all Challenges are to the death. It keeps them infrequent."

She frowned as a wave of anger and protectiveness surged through her. "You didn't tell me that! You had to fight for your life naked and weaponless against a Svurtr at ten years old?!"

Harry shrugged at her. "It never came up. Relax Hermione, it's over and done with a long time ago."

"You killed a full-grown black dragon with your bare hands when you were ten years old." Sirius said incredulously.

Harry shook his head. "No no no. No adult may challenge an adolescent, it would be a slaughter. Only an adolescent can challenge an adolescent."

"So you killed an _adolescent_ black dragon with your bare hands when you were ten." Sirius corrected in the same flat tone.

Harry nodded. "Almost died too. I did well dodging his breath until he ran out. I should have stuck close to his body after that, but I tried to get some distance between us and he caught me with a claw across the back, then stuck a talon straight through me right here." He pointed to a spot just under his right ribs next to his breastbone. "Cut a big hole right there all the way through and pinned me to the ground."

She squeezed his hand hard without realizing it as the scene played out in her head. Adrenaline spiked through her and heat began to gather on the backs of her shoulders and neck.

Harry stopped the tale and turned to her. He rested his forehead against hers and looked into her eyes. "It's okay, Hermione. It's history. I'm here, we're together. It's okay."

She smiled at him and took a few deep breaths, and the heat began to dissipate. Harry kissed her, and that made everything feel alright again in her chest. The knot of worry that had formed smoothed away.

When Harry moved away again, she saw Sirius's eyes glued on her, wide open and amazed.

"What?" She asked him.

He opened his mouth but didn't seem able to find words.

"That was nothing." Luna said. "You should have seen Harry in the Great Hall. He made half the staff wet themselves."

Sirius licked his lips and took a swig of butterbeer.

"Don't just leave the story there Harry, I'm on tenterhooks here. What happened with the other dragon?" Luna complained.

"Sorry." Harry smiled at Luna. "Usually when a dragon is able to pin something down, the next logical thing to do is bite - it's instinctual. Luckily, Breathes First followed true to form. I waited for him to commit to his bite, then I breathed fire. Caught him with his mouth open and charred his head completely off. He fell over and the claw he had through me pulled me to my feet again. Mother said I had to take his heart if I wanted to live, so I pulled his plates apart, cut a hole in his chest and and took his heart out. I stuffed it into my own chest through the hole he made. Mother told me later that she meant I had to eat his heart, but I was accustomed to listening to her, so I did what she said without really thinking about it. I don't know how long I was unconscious after that, but I woke up healed and the Matriarch Declared me, so my solution worked. That's why my heartbeat sounds like it echoes."

That made sense. She'd heard it last night and that morning. "I did wonder." She told him.

Sirius pointed to his wand. "May I? I know a spell healers use to make parts of the body invisible so they can see what's going on."

"I assume you don't need to be told you won't leave here if you harm him?" She asked Sirius pointedly.

Sirius smiled back at her. "Even if it were possible for me to harm him with the oaths I've taken, I'm not stupid or ungrateful enough to cross you." He winked at her.

She cocked her head at him, unable to decide if he were being genuine and rakish, or if he were being condescending and patronizing. She decided it was in Harry's best interests if she delayed that judgement until she knew him better. She could always spank Sirius later.

A look at her Mate told her he was having the same internal debate. He looked at her. She shrugged.

"Alright, go ahead." Harry said as he pulled his shirt open.

Sirius picked up his wand and waved it at Harry's chest. " _Ostende Internus._ " He incanted. The spell slid off his skin and made part of the wall invisible. She could see the building next door.

"Uhh..." Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Sorry." Harry said, "Let me try to pull it in. Try again." He concentrated. Sirius tried the spell again, and Harry's chest went transparent through the skin and muscle and bone. His two hearts were clearly visible as they beat away between his lungs. The one on the right was larger and glowed a soft amethyst.

"That's amazing." Luna said in a soft voice as she scooched closer to Harry on the bench and put her ear against his chest. She held it there for a long moment before she sat up again. "Sorry, it's very soothing." She smiled.

"Okay... you had a very interesting childhood." Sirius sighed with raised eyebrows. "How did you come to be a MacFusty?"

"Right, that's where I was going with all that." Harry nodded. "After I was Declared, Mother said I should go to the MacFusty farm. She didn't know what their names were of course, she just called them pinkskins. She thought I should go learn to be one of my own kind, so I reluctantly left her Nest and flew the half hour to the MacFusty farm. I dropped out of the sky, a five-foot tall naked ten year old, and scared them all half to death. I didn't speak a word of English at the time either, so I just stood there mimicking Fergus. After a minute he walked up to me and saw the scar on my head. I put my hand on his forehead and repeated 'Airy fookin' Pottarrh', thinking it was some kind of greeting."

The image of smaller naked Harry happily swearing his own name made her giggle out loud. Luna, too.

Harry grinned in return. "They took me in and taught me English and everything else. I was with them for four years while Maisie - MacFusty Matriarch - brought me up to speed for everything I needed in order to start at Hogwarts this year."

"She's a licensed tutor?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded. "She had to get her tutor's license from the Ministry as they couldn't afford to send their girls here. License is far cheaper."

"That's certainly true." Sirius admitted. "Thank you Harry, for sharing all that with a half-mad stranger who failed you."

"Half mad?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You were completely sane when I met you the first time," She told Sirius, "If a little obsessed. You seem fine now."

"Okay, so I _feel_ half-mad, better?" Sirius smirked.

"People accuse me of being half-mad all the time." Luna smiled. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"You're mad like a sphinx. I don't even know you and that much is obvious." Sirius said as he pointed at Luna. She just smiled back at him.

"Your intellectual stability notwithstanding Sirius, I think we've come to the crux of this meeting." Harry said as he leaned forward and placed his interlaced fingers on the table.

Sirius smiled back at Harry. "Taller and sharper than your father. You look a lot like him, you know - but definitely your mother's eyes." He took something from his pocket the size of a knut and placed it on the table. He waved his wand over it, and it grew into a full-sized, leather-bound album. "You want to know what I want from you, where we go from here."

Harry just nodded.

"That answer changes with your perspective, Harry. I want to be part of your life. To you that may be nothing, or it may be too much to ask. It's up to you."

"Well... To be perfectly honest I never had a Godfather or uncle that I can remember, so I don't really have any kind of way to feel about that. I would be a fool however, to turn down a possible friend just because you were thrown in prison without a trial. I have a lot to figure out in the next while, and I'd appreciate another experienced opinion to turn to. On occasion, I mean - I do have a lot of homework to do too." Harry smiled ruefully.

"I appreciate that, Harry. If there's anything I can do for you or with you - like shopping for certain ladies, just say the word." Sirius grinned. He pushed the leatherbound album across the table to Harry. "This is yours. The original was left at Godric's Hollow and was destroyed by the elements over the years. That one is a copy of the original your mum and dad left with me."

At his touch, the cover of the album changed into a picture frame. The picture in the center of the cover was of a pretty young witch with long, straight red hair and vibrant green eyes the same shade as Harry's. Next to her was a tall, grey-eyed, raven-haired man whose hair couldn't make up its mind which direction to go. They held a green-eyed, raven-haired baby between them.

Harry looked up from the picture to Sirius. His eyes were glassy with tears. "This is the first picture I've ever seen of them. Or me."

"Take it, it's yours. If you have questions, just send your Elf. I'll be on my way and let you get back to your precious weekend. I've taken enough of your time as it is. Thanks for lunch." Sirius smiled.

"Thank you." Harry replied, "I'll write later."

Sirius stood and put his backup wands back where they belonged. He put his robes back on and rolled down his pantlegs and shirtsleeves. Harry stood and offered his hand.

Sirius shook it with a grin. "See you later, Harry."

"See you later, Sirius."

She unsealed the door so he could leave.

"I like him." Luna said after he'd gone. Harry chuckled.

"One last thing to do before we leave too." She said to Harry. He frowned for a moment, then smiled and kissed her. She liked that part.

He turned and handed the Gringott's letter to Luna.

She opened and read it, and then looked up at both of them with a huge grin.

"Congratulations! When? When did this happen?" Luna smiled at them broadly.

"Don't know for sure, but... Well, you saw me get the letter today." Harry said.

"Pretty sure it was our first kiss yesterday." She supplied. Harry turned to her with a smile.

"Definitely an epic snog." He grinned. "Your lips are amazing."

That put a gooey feeling in her stomach.

"People are going to lose their minds when this goes public, you know that don't you?" Luna said.

"Which?" She asked in return, "That we're married or that he's Harry Potter?"

"Both." Luna said.

  
  


* * *

  
  


He caught Neville in the library doing homework. Harry strode quietly up to him and leaned over to whisper.

"Could I have a private word, Nev?"

Neville nodded. "'Course, mate." He stood and followed Harry into the rows of bookshelves, all the way to the back of the room.

Harry pulled out his wand and cast a privacy shell around them so they couldn't be seen or overheard.

"What's up?" Neville asked.

"I wanted to tell you what I haven't told you yet. I know your Occlumency shields are still in progress, and I hope you'll keep working on them, but today at lunch I told Luna, and I thought it wouldn't be very fair to not tell you as well."

"I appreciate that Dunc, but you don't have to. I'm more concerned with keeping your secret than knowing it."

That made him grin, and he couldn't help himself - he hugged Neville. "Spoken like a true brother." He said. "I found out today that's what we are."

He held up his left hand and willed his Heir Ring visible.

Neville frowned for a second, until his eyes focused on the crest. Then they went wide in recognition. "It's you. It's really you!" His eyes began to water. "You're not dead!" He wrapped his arms around Harry and picked him up off the floor and spun him around before he set him back down.

"You son of a troll!" Neville laughed and grinned while tears rolled down his cheeks. He wiped them away on his sleeve.

"Sorry I didn't tell you sooner Nev. If I'd known we were brothers I'd have told you from the start and shields be damned."

Neville shook his head, still grinning. "No. I'm even more concerned with keeping your secret now. I've been practicing not looking people in the eyes until my shields are good enough. Also, on a side note - is it just me or does practicing the Occlumency make your memory better? I find I can remember everything now, even if I've only seen it in passing. "

"No, you're absolutely right. Part of the purpose of it is to organize your thoughts. At least, that's what I've read."

Neville nodded. "Good, glad it's not just me. Daphne's got good shields too. She's been helping me the last couple of days. She's been practicing for years."

Harry grinned back. "Brilliant, mate! I'm so happy you coughed up the courage to go talk to her. You look good together, you know? Actually, that brings up another bit of news. I kissed Hermione in Hogsmeade yesterday."

Neville clapped him on the shoulder. "You bloody go-getter, you. Way to go." He laughed.

"It was a great kiss for sure, but... I found out today we're now married."

" _What_?" Neville's face fell.

"Yeah. I always thought you know, ceremony and flowers and rings and 'I do' and all that. I'm thrilled, I mean completely over the moon about it, but shocked would be an understatement too."

"Hm. I've heard about spontaneous weddings before. It's incredibly rare, but sometimes magic itself decides it wants you married, so you are. At least, that's how the stories go."

"Hm. I was thinking along the lines of... well. Something else you don't know about me - us - I'm part dragon, Nev. I was raised by a black dragon."

"Fuck off..” Neville grinned, clearly thinking Harry was taking the piss. When his expression didn't change, Neville frowned. “You're serious?"

Harry nodded with a smile at Neville's incredulity. "Yes, I'm serious. I'll take you to meet her if you like. The point is, black dragons only have one Mate. Only one other dragon they can love and have kids with. When I kissed Hermione, we recognized each other as our Mates."

"Oh. I'd say that explains it then. Still..."

"Still?" Harry waited for him to continue.

"Well, you're _you_. The regular rules that apply to the rest of us seem to go on holiday where you're concerned. Whatever the real reason though, I'm happy for you both. How did Hermione take the news?"

"Pretty well, honestly. I think she's happy about it, but I also can't help but think she's also a little disappointed about not having a wedding. Even if she isn't, I'm planning one for after we graduate. Wanna be my best man?"

Neville grinned. "As though I would say no. Whatever you do, wherever you go, I'm there if you want me."

"I appreciate that, Nev. I really do. I'll amend it to 'unless occupied with Daphne' though." Harry winked, "How did that start, anyway?"

"She's not at all what I expected, if I'm honest. More than I could have hoped or dreamed, but not as I expected. You're to blame for it, indirectly. She was part of the group that cornered Luna and I over there and asked what was going on with you as you hadn't been around at all. I had to give Parkinson some perspective - sternly - and told her she didn't stand a ghost of a chance with you because of her expressed attitude toward Hermione. I won't repeat what she said because you'll want to go thrash her even though you never would. After that, one of the Beauxbatons ladies – Arielle, I think her name is - asked if I was busy for this weekend. Daphne actually grabbed my arm and claimed _me_ for the weekend. Can you believe that?"

Harry grinned back at him. "As a matter of fact, I can Nev. You're a good man. Do you think the two of you will actually get along?"

Neville nodded with a happy smile. "We do. Surprisingly well. We seem almost tailor-made for each other, and I'm... it's a wonderful time getting to know her."

"Brilliant." Harry grinned back. "We'll have to get together sometime just the four of us and see how the girls get along."

"That's a plan then. Not for a while yet, let them get used to the idea of being with us first."

"Agreed. I'll leave it to you to suggest then." He clapped Neville on the shoulder. "I'll let you get back to your homework, mate. We'll talk more later?'

"Definitely." Neville nodded. "Little brother." He grinned.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Georgie Porgie brother of mine." Fred queried, "Ickle Ronniekins' favourite target, the frizzy-headed Top Spot girl... Her name was Hermione, was it not? Hermione Granger?"

"If I recall correctly, yes. Why? What has the magnificent map shown us today?"

Fred just held their favourite bit of parchment up so George could see what he was looking at. His finger pointed at two names that walked side by side through the halls.

"Oh." George said.

"Oh indeed. Am I to take your sagacious intonation for agreement that this may pose a significant issue in the future?"

"Indubitably. That's a walking blood feud, that is."

"My thoughts exactly. Perhaps it's time we inform dear PaPa of the situation." Fred mused.

"Neither Ron nor Ginny will, so as usual it's down to us. What to tell though?"

"Possible shitstorm brewing, batten down the middens?"

"So droll." George made a sour face.

"It's a filthy business, minding the family shithead."

"Touche, brother mine, touche. However, methinks young Ginevra may just lose her shit at the news as well." George pointed out.

"Oo, a fair point. The wind from that direction is equally asinine."

"I hope father doesn't just dismiss it as our usual flatulence."

"All we need do is detail Ronald's excrement. The flush should roll downhill to Ginny as well." Fred proposed.

"Think it would stick? Or will they both just go back to slinging mud?"

"Well you know what they say..." Fred started,

"Can't polish a turd." They finished simultaneously.

  
  



	8. Chapter 8

  
  


He held his arm out to her as they approached the Great Hall. He could tell she was nervous, even if she was a lot more relaxed than she had been at breakfast. She hooked her hand around his elbow and smiled at him, with just a hint of thanks behind it. It still tickled his hearts to be able to read her like that, and he felt a warmth suffuse his chest.

Quiet followed in their wake as they entered the Great Hall and assumed their seats at the empty end of the Gryffindor table. Conversation started anew after they had done so, but they could both tell the new talk was rife with whispers.

Neville came to sit across from them when he arrived, and Luna sat on Harry's open side when she arrived. It made Harry wonder if Daphne would ever have the temerity to come and sit with Neville. Then again, maybe temerity didn't really enter the picture. Maybe it was more a question of escaping the backbiting of her House. There would certainly be some traitorous accusations if Daphne did come sit with them. Would the opposite be true though? It might cause strife for Daphne if Hermione, Neville and himself went to sit with her as long as she wasn't friendly... Unless she claimed afterward that she was just pretending in order to get close to them? That might actually gain her some respect in her house for doing something the rest couldn't. He would have to bring that up to Neville later.

Arielle sat next to Neville when she arrived, and that was the first time Harry saw Daphne take any kind of interest in their table. Apparently getting along smoothly with her house was less important to her than another girl sitting next to Neville. A younger redhead girl sat next to Arielle just before dinner started, though he couldn't recall her name if he'd ever known it. He felt Hermione tense even though she only barely touched his leg with hers. She frowned at the redhead, who blithely ignored it.

Harry quietly put his hand on Hermione's thigh and smiled when she looked at him, and that seemed to calm her some. She still glared at the redhead though.

The Hallowe'en decorations festooned everywhere put a celebratory mood in the air during the meal. There was an occasional scream followed by laughter when one of the bats flying around the Great Hall landed on a student and pretended to bite his or her neck.

When the meal had ended and the food disappeared once again from the tables, Headmaster Dumbledore took up position in front of the lectern once again, though he was shortly flanked by Headmaster Karkaroff and Headmistress Maxime. The three of them waited patiently for Mister Filch to wheel out the heavy cart whereupon sat an ornate goblet brimming with blue flames.

"This is more tournament business, isn't it?" He whispered to Hermione.

"Choosing of the Champions. The Goblet of Fire will choose which names get to be Champions. I'm surprised you didn't read more about it." She whispered back.

"I had other things on my mind." He whispered, then kissed just behind her ear.

"You have all had a month," Dumbledore began, his voice clearly amplified to reach the far end of the Hall where they sat, "To decide whether or not you wished to participate in the Triwizard Tournament as a Champion, and to then place your name in the Goblet of Fire." Pause two beats for dramatic effect. "It is time for the Champions to be chosen!"

Applause echoed around the hall. Dumbledore drank it in.

"If your name is called, proceed to the antechamber on my right for a short conference on what comes next." He made a gesture with both arms, and the lights in the Great Hall dimmed to leave the blue fire of the Goblet as a flickering beacon.

Noise in the hall dimmed with the lights as the students and staff waited. Tension mounted as everyone stared at the flickering blue flame, until a hissing roar sounded briefly from the Goblet as the flames turned bright orange-red. A slip of parchment, charred around the edges, launched out of the flames high into the air over the cup. The parchment piece floated downward like a leaf on a breeze, and was caught by Dumbledore.

"The Durmstrang Champion will be...Viktor Krum!" Dumbledore bellowed.

All eyes turned to the far end of the Slytherin table where the boys from Durmstrang sat. One of them stood and pumped his fist into the air as the others around him clapped him on the back. The chosen Champion walked purposefully toward the antechamber and disappeared from sight.

The Goblet flared again, and another slip of parchment spat into the air. This one was caught by Karkaroff, who handed it to Dumbledore.

"The Beauxbatons Champion will be... Fleur Delacour!" Dumbledore shouted.

Fleur rose from the Ravenclaw table and sashayed with deceptive speed toward the antechamber. When she had vanished into the other room, again all eyes turned back to the Goblet. It sat quietly for a long moment, as though deliberating its choices. The quietly dancing sapphire flames changed quickly, and spat the last bit of parchment into the air. Madam Maxime caught this one and handed it to Dumbledore.

"The Hogwarts Champion will be... Cedric Diggory!"

Thunderous applause and cheering broke out at the Hufflepuff table as Cedric stood and endured a gauntlet of slaps to his back and shoulders before he too disappeared into the antechamber.

Dumbledore raised his hands to the Hall to call for quiet. It took a moment, but everyone settled.

"We will now retire to the antechamber to discuss the First Task of the tournament with the Champions. You are all free to-"

He was cut off as the Goblet flared to red-orange again, and another slip of parchment spat into the air. Silence gripped the Hall as all eyes watched the parchment piece drift lazily downward as the Goblet returned to a dull blue.

Dumbledore managed to catch the piece of parchment and looked out over the student body with shock and disbelief on his face.

"Duncan MacFusty!" Dumbledore called.

Hermione's hand gripped his thigh in fear. "Don't go." She whispered. "This is a setup."

He kissed her cheek. "Of course it is. We know it is, and we'll be ready. At the very least, I'll go find out who put my name in."

She kissed him deeply. "Come back to me." Fear turned her plea to a whisper.

"Duncan MacFusty!" Dumbledore repeated.

"You're my Mate. My wife. Nothing can keep me from you. Nothing." He whispered back as he stood.

He turned and sauntered casually toward the antechamber. He frowned as he walked, and it was only seconds before the whispers started. He couldn't hear what they were saying of course, but it was likely something to do with how he'd cheated the selection process. The Goblet's slowly dancing blue flames extinguished as he walked past, and the Goblet went dark.

Viktor, Cedric, and Fleur all looked confused as he opened the door and entered the antechamber. There was a Ministry official in the room as well, a greasy-looking man with a very unbecoming moustache.

"Who are you? What is this?" The official demanded. Harry ignored him and held the door open for Madam Maxime, Karkaroff and Dumbledore, then closed it behind them.

"What is going on Dumbledore?" The official started to sound angry.

"His name came out of the Goblet, Barty." Dumbledore sighed dramatically.

"That cannot be!" Barty shrilled. "It's the _TRI_ wizard Tournament! _TRI_! Three!"

"Nevertheless, it has happened. He was chosen, Bartemius."

"This is outrageous!" Karkaroff shouted. "If Hogwarts has two Champions, I demand we be allowed two as well!"

"That would be fair." Harry agreed. "Or I could just leave and let you get on with it, since I don't want to be here at all."

"What is the Goblet doing?" The official asked. "Is it still giving names?

"Ze Goblet is extingueesh." Madam Maxime said.

The official began to sweat then. "He must stay. He must compete. The Goblet is a binding magical contract."

Harry smiled at that.

"Zat is most unfair, Doombleydoore." Madam Maxime sighed.

"I quite agree, Madam. However, the path is set. All those named must compete."

"Look at his smiling!" Karkaroff put his own face an inch from Harry's and shouted at him. "You did this! How did you cheat, boy?! Confess!"

Harry's smile fell and he stared back into Karkaroff's eyes. "Your breath stinks." He said.

Karkaroff grabbed the front of Harry's robes.

"Don't touch me." Harry said.

Karkaroff ignored him.

Harry broke his hand.

"Aaahh!!" Karkaroff screamed and clutched his broken hand to his chest.

Dumbledore got into Harry's face then. "What did you do?" He demanded.

"I told him not to touch me. He didn't listen." Harry replied calmly.

Dumbledore gave him a hard glare, and then guided Karkaroff out of the antechamber.

"Vat you do to Kheadmaster?" Viktor demanded angrily.

"Viktor, right?" Harry asked.

Viktor nodded.

"You heard me tell him not to touch me. He didn't listen." Harry held up his left hand in a fist, then wrapped his right hand around it. "I squeezed his fist and broke this bone here." He pointed to the bone that connected his index finger to his wrist.

"Khow?" Viktor frowned.

"I'm very strong." Harry answered.

Viktor glared at him for a long moment, but didn't say anything else.

"Mister Bartemius?" Harry asked.

"Yes? What is your name, boy?"

"MacFusty. Duncan MacFusty. Are you _absolutely_ certain that I _have_ to compete in this tournament that is _specifically limited_ to students who are _of age_? I'm only fourteen."

"What? You're only fourteen?! How did this happen?!" Mister Bartemious looked to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, so Harry refrained from any other questions.

"Yes." The ragged official said eventually. "Yes, you must compete, regardless."

Harry nodded. "My thanks, Mister Bartemius. That's what I thought you were going to say."

Fleur came to stand next to him then. "You didn't do this, did you? You really don't want to be here." She whispered in French.

Harry smiled back at her. "No, I really didn't and no I really don't." He replied in French. "I would wager either Dumbledore did it directly, or more likely he arranged for it to happen. I don't have any proof, but that's my feeling."

"Why though? What would he have to gain from including you?"

Harry shrugged. "He tried to read my thoughts the first night I was here. Maybe since he couldn't, this is another way for him to find out what I'm capable of. I honestly don't know why."

"But... You are only fourteen! Is it not a crime to read the thoughts of a minor in Britain?"

Harry nodded. "As far as I know it is, yes. There's no proof, of course. it would be Albus Dumbledore's word against a nobody's. Besides, I have defenses. He paid for his mistake with three days in the Hospital wing."

"Zree days?! Defense magnifique!" Fleur slipped into English in surprise.

"He wasn't expecting me to have any and left himself unguarded."

"Still..." She sidled a little closer to him and whispered breathily in his ear. "I would like to get to know you betteur, Duncan. You seem... interesting."

Harry smiled at her. "Thank you for your interest, Fleur, it's incredibly flattering. Unfortunately I am very taken, and will remain faithful ever and always."

Fleur sighed and pouted then, but plucked herself up after a second. "Of course you are." She whispered with a chagrined smile. "The good ones always are."

"Not all of them." Harry whispered back. "Cedric's girlfriend and three of her friends tried to potion me so they could get me into a broom closet. You can ask Luna or most of the other girls if you want proof. She didn't even have the decency to dump him first, she was just going to cheat on him. Cedric is a good man and doesn't deserve that. If I was going to point you at good men, I would give you two names in this castle - Neville Longbottom, who is also taken, and Cedric Diggory, who is but shouldn't be. Get to know him, see how it goes. Invite me to the wedding." Harry grinned.

Fleur chuckled warmly and stole a glance at Cedric. "He is certainly pretty." She whispered after a moment.

"And he deserves better than Cho Chang." Harry whispered.

"I have heard of this Chang girl from the others. You are right, he deserves better. We shall see if he is good enough to deserve me."

"I don't think you'll be disappointed. Susan and Hannah were both after him last -"

The door opened again and Dumbledore and Karkaroff returned, so he dropped their whispered conversation.

"Well," Dumbledore said once the door was closed, "If we can proceed without any further violence..."

Harry scowled. "I told him not to touch me."

Dumbledore glared at him.

"What was it you wanted to tell us, Headmaster?" Cedric asked.

Dumbledore assumed his grandfatherly mien again, like it was a cloak he struggled into.

"Yes, Mister Diggory, my apologies. We simply wished to inform you that the first Task of the tournament will occur at the end of November, you have that long to prepare.

"Prepare for vat?" Viktor frowned. "Khow ve prepare vhen ve not know vhat Task is?"

"That is why it is a Challenge, Mister Krum." Dumbledore replied.

"Vhy zhen you force boy to take Challenge for men?" Viktor kept his frown. "Vhy is tournament now mockery? Is no glory for man to beat child. Is only shame."

"I agree wiz Viktor." Fleur said. "Zis ees already un traveste."

"Isn't there some way we could nullify that choosing and do it over?" Cedric asked.

"No, no. You don't understand!" Bartemious wrung his hands. "The Goblet is a _binding magical contract_! If things _don't_ proceed as they are, you will all _lose your magic_."

Silence gripped the room as that sank in.

"You _dare_ use such a thing on one of _my_ students, Albus?!" Karkaroff growled.

"Come, Fleur." Madam Maxime ordered, then headed for the door. "Zis is on _your_ head, Doombleydoore." She glared down at him as she passed, then exited the room followed by Fleur.

"Are we done then? Can I go back to my seat?" Harry asked.

"I would like to see you in my office, Mister MacFusty." Dumbledore said.

"Why? So you can try to read my mind again?"

"That's enough, Mister MacFusty." Dumbledore said, warning evident in his tone.

"Enough of what? I don't mind if Cedric hears what you have to say. Or Viktor, or anyone else. Why the need for privacy, Headmaster?"

"That will be one month's detention with Mister Filch, Mister MacFusty." Dumbledore said, all traces of his grandfatherly disguise gone.

"No." Harry said flatly.

"Excuse me?" Dumbledore said, and stepped closer to Harry in a feeble attempt to intimidate, as Karkaroff had done.

"I said no. If you wish to punish me for breaking Headmaster Karkaroff's hand, then you are exceeding your purview. I have read the Hogwarts charter, Headmaster. I've read the detailed outlines of every professor's position, including yours. You may not punish me for defending myself when someone - anyone - lays hands on me. You may also not punish me for not getting your own way. So no, I will not be going to detention with Mister Filch at this or any other time, and I will be happy to discuss the situation with Susan's Aunt."

Dumbledore burned hatred into his eyes, but turned and left the room without a word.

"Daaaaamn." Cedric let out a long breath when Dumbledore had gone. "Are you sure that was wise, MacFusty?"

Harry grinned at him. "You can call me Duncan, Heir Diggory. We're going to be friendly rivals now, after all. Maybe it wasn't so wise, but I - " He paused to look into Karkaroff's eyes. " _Hate bullies_. In any form."

Karkaroff scoffed and left the room as well.

"Vat is bully?" Viktor asked.

Harry quirked one corner of his mouth as he thought. "I don't know the Bulgarian... En francais?"

"Oui." Viktor said.

"C'est bon! Bully est brute. L'Intimidateur."

"Ah." Viktor smiled in understanding. "Je comprends. Au revoir, MacFusty."

"Duncan." Harry said with a smile.

"Au revoir Duncan." Viktor nodded back, left the room and he was alone with Cedric.

"Was all that true? What you said about the Hogwarts charter and such? And, call me Cedric, please." Cedric asked.

"Yes, absolutely. By law all that information has to be made public, but it doesn't by law have to be made easy to get to. I wandered around the Ministry for three hours before I found where they keep it."

"That's... typical."

"So I'm coming to understand..." He tried to gauge Cedric's mood, but decided just to get it over with and spit it out. "I don't mean to intrude on your private business Cedric, but would you take a bit of unsolicited relationship advice?"

"As long as it's not anything I have to fight you for." He smiled, half-joking.

"I would never." Harry replied with a smile. "You seem like a good guy, Cedric, and I hate seeing good people lied to. Ask Miss Chang about the four idiots."

"Four idiots?"

"Yeah. I won't go into it because it's not my place, but she's keeping things from you if you don't already know about it."

Cedric looked a bit confused and frowned at the same time.

"Alright. That's... a bit weird for conversation."

"I understand, believe me. I'm sorry to intrude, it shouldn't be necessary and I hope you won't hold it against me later, but you deserve the truth."

"Thanks, I guess?"

Harry grinned at him. "And, speaking of women, she's probably about to tear the castle down with her bare hands, so I should go."

"Actually, who is that, if you don't mind me asking?" He followed Harry to the door and through, into the Great Hall.

"That's Hermione." Harry said with a proud grin.

"Seriously? The top student, frizzy-haired girl with a limp?"

Harry nodded. "She got her knee fixed, started working out, gained some confidence. Between you and me, I am _so_ gonna marry her."

Cedric laughed at that and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Good luck, Duncan."

Harry smiled at him as they separated to go to their respective tables. "You too, Cedric."

He was right about Hermione, she looked ready to start flipping tables and tearing stones out of walls. She didn't even wait for him to sit down, she jumped out of her seat, grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the exit.

"You alright, Hermione?" He asked once they were in the halls.

"No. I'm freaking out and I don't really know why and that's making me freak out more." She didn't slow her pace one atom between the Great Hall and the Gryffindor common room. "Get all your things." She whispered in his ear, "You're moving in with me so I can be sure you're safe."

That put a smile on his face, and he did as she bid him. He gathered up his toiletries, clothing, and trunk, and put his shrunken trunk in his pocket before he returned to her. She hadn't even sat down, she paced back and forth near the portrait door. She stopped when she saw him and frowned.

"Where's your stuff?" She asked when he reached her.

"My trunk shrinks, it's in my pocket." He said.

"Oh." She half-smiled, then gripped his hand again and pulled him along with her. Once they were out of sight of anyone in the halls, she disillusioned and silenced them both. She led him by the hand to the same place he kept losing her when he'd followed her before, the study room on the fourth floor. She closed the door behind them, then dropped the Silence.

"Oberon." She told one of the bookcases, and it swung silently outward.

No wonder he kept losing her!

She pulled him into the hallway behind the bookcase and closed it behind them before she continued. A hundred feet or so down that hallway, she stopped, and cancelled the Disillusionment. She tapped her wand on one of the wall stones, and a section of the wall swung smoothly and silently inward.

"That's brilliant!" He boggled. Beyond the wall was a large room, the size of one of the transfiguration classrooms. There was a sink stuck to the wall high up in one corner that had also been screened off from the rest of the room, two dressers, a loveseat, a bed, and a dozen bookshelves all filled to capacity.

Hermione pulled him inside and the door shut behind them, and only then did she seem to relax at all. She took a deep breath and sighed.

Harry put his arms around her and held her close. "Sorry for making you worry, Hermione. You'll want to hear everything that happened, of course."

She wrapped her arms around his ribs and squeezed while she buried her face in his robes and nodded. Without warning, she bent and picked him up, carried him to the bed and dumped him on it, then lay on top of him and kissed him deeply for a long moment.

He smiled up at her and tucked an errant curl behind her ear. "Better now?"

She smiled and blushed at him, but nodded. Most of the tension had gone from her face.

"I think so. Now tell me everything."

He went over everything in detail, but had to stop and wait for her laughter to subside when he told her about his refusal to submit to detentions.

"We are _so_ going to the Ministry over Christmas. I have to have a copy of that!" She beamed.

"That actually brings me to the up side of all this. I apparently absolutely have to compete in this tournament that is only for _of age_ students, so by the ministry's own laws..."

She gasped as her eyes went wide and her hand curled into a claw on his chest. "You have to be considered an adult!"

"That was my thinking. Which means, if that's true, then we can stop by Gringott's as soon as we're off the train, I can pick up my new ring, and we could have a house ready and waiting for us to stay in, assuming there are any properties associated with House Potter, of course."

"Oh Harry, that would be so nice. To not have to put up with my parents and the same tired Christmas nonsense... To not be treated like I'm five years old, that would be just wonderful."

He kissed her again. "You're wonderful."

"You're not so bad yourself." She smiled at him, and the look in her eyes made his chest squeeze.

"You keep looking at me like that, you'll make me fall in love with you."

She kissed him again. "Remind me to do it a few thousand times a day then."

He grinned at her. "So... I notice there's only one bed..."

She bit her lip. "Is that okay? I mean, we could make another if you want. I just thought... I had the best sleep ever last night, and I just -"

"I did too, Hermione. I really, really enjoyed it. If you're alright with..." He looked away as he felt heat rise into his cheeks. "The embarrassing thing that happens when I'm asleep, then definitely."

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about with me, Harry. You'll witness plenty of embarrassing things about me too. I want to know everything about you. Everything... Tell me something about you I don't know."

"Hmm something you don't know... Whenever I brought a goat or deer back to the Nest, I would always give Mother the guts. The heart, organs, stomach... I call them the slithery bits. She loves them, but I never liked them."

Hermione made a face. "That's gross... but also makes me kind of hungry in a weird way."

Harry chuckled. "Mother's Nest is all hard stone, so I would breathe on a patch of floor near my hoard and throw a leg on there to cook and eat that."

"That actually makes me feel kind of bad for feeling sorry for myself. I had clothes and food and relative safety and never had to kill to eat."

"I liked those times. Everything was simple. The down side of course is that I wasn't learning anything. Once I started to learn things I couldn't get enough. Still can't." He smiled. "Your turn. Tell me something nobody knows about you."

"Yours was the first hug I can remember." Her face went partly sad and partly stony.

"But... you have both your parents!" His brows knit together as he tried to understand a parent _not_ hugging a child. Even Mother showed affection! It wasn't warm soft hugs, but it was all the affection she had nonetheless.

Hermione smiled the way people do when they're trying to downplay something. "Technically."

He wrapped his arms around her. "Well I like hugging you. I'll give you all the hugs you could ever want. Any time, any where."

She smiled and nuzzled into him. "Must be why it's such a nice sleep."

He smiled back at her. "Sleepy now?"

She shook her head a little and spilled some of her curls across his face. Her hair smelled of butterscotch and jasmine and the dust from old books. Harry breathed it in with a contented smile and thrummed happily deep in his chest. Hermione giggled and held him tighter, and at that moment he had never been more satisfied.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Kneescythe settled into his chair and pulled out the Business Accounts ledger. With Lord-presumptive Potter's new status, he'd had the opportunity to diversify some of his holdings and managed to increase revenue by almost a third of a percent. He was anxious to see what the night's foreign trading had wrought, particularly the Australian market. Big things were happening there.

He immersed himself in the numbers as he always did, and was not disappointed with the evening's trading. There had been no significant gain, but no losses either, and that was still a win. He pulled a quill from his desk as he prepared to make notes for the day's tasks, when a runner opened his door, dashed into the office, dropped a letter in his hands, and dashed out again.

Neat script adorned the front of the letter, addressed with just 'Kneescythe'. The back bore the seal of the Potter Heir's ring. He broke the seal and opened the letter, eager to see what the unconventional young wizard had to say.

**Dear Accounts Manager Kneescythe,**

**I would first like to thank you for your efforts regarding my mail problem, and your continuing efforts on behalf of my family accounts. You have my ongoing gratitude.**

**Something completely unexpected and wholly illegal has happened to me while here at school. Have you heard of the Triwizard Tournament? It's a contest to pit three students against deadly tasks. The Ministry has decreed that only OF AGE wizards and witches can be allowed to take part, and yet somehow my name came out of the Goblet of Fire. I didn't enter my name, I didn't ask anyone to do it for me, and yet my name came out of it.**

**I was told that even though I'm underage - and I was very specific about this - that I** _**absolutely had to compete** _ **. The official said the Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical contract. So I got to thinking - The ministry says I have to compete in a tournament that the Ministry says is only for 'of age' students, so isn't that the same as the Ministry saying I'm of age?**

**The more I thought about it, the more I thought I should ask you since you and your colleagues at Gringott's know a great deal more about the Ministry than I do. Is there some paperwork I need to fill out to get recognized as being of age?**

**Any assistance you or your colleagues could render me in this instance would be greatly appreciated.**

**May your gold flow in mighty rivers,**

**-Harry James Potter.**

**P.S. I've been reading about Goblin customs, but there's not much information available, I hope I didn't mess it up!**

Kneescythe re-folded the letter and placed it on the shelf to his right. His instincts had been completely correct, this Potter did not disappoint. Part of him felt giddy at the thought of what this Potter might bring in the future.

He pushed the black metal plate on his desk.

"Yes sir?" Spinegrip's voice came from the plate.

"Get me forms EM forty-three and forty-seven."

"Yes Sir."

Spinegrip entered his office a few minutes later with the forms and deposited them on his desk. "Anything else sir?"

"I'll want to send these by owl after I fill them out, otherwise it's a slow day."

Kneescythe filled out the relevant parts of the forms and penned a short letter to Lord-presumptive Potter, and put everything in a large envelope. He called Spinegrip to take the package and owl it to Potter, and when he was alone in his office again he steepled his fingers and cast his mind forward. Whoever it was in the government that had redirected Potter's mail would likely seek to block his emancipation. That meant keeping things quiet. Keeping things quiet meant he had some people to see.

He placed the ledger back where it belonged, and plucked his battleaxe from its place on the wall.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Fucking jumped-up, arrogant little shit! How _dare_ he say no? He was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore! Leader of the Light! Living Legend! Dark Lord Defeater! Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, Headmaster of the only Magical school in Britain! He was the Utimate Authority! And the little fucker had the temerity to _threaten_ him with the head of the DMLE?! Little shit should have just died when Tom killed him, all the bloody affrontery would have been avoided.

Dumbledore swept into his office and closed the door with a satisfying slam. Fawkes looked up from his perch and sensed his mood as he always did. Instead of offering a soothing balm however, the stupid fried chicken laughed at him. The mocking sing-song tones jarred his already ragged nerves and pushed him from merely angry and annoyed into rage.

"That is enough out of you." He growled. His backup wand was in his hand before he realized what he was doing. A part of his mind warned him not to, but he was angrier than he had been in decades. Nobody said no to him! Nobody mocked him! He was Albus bloody Dumbledore! A jet of pure cold shot from his wand and struck the precious bird square in its chest. It let out a horrified squawk and fell from its perch onto the tray beneath and didn't move. The glorious vibrant red of his plumage grew dull and lifeless as a coating of ice spread over his rigid body.

"Who is laughing _now_?" Dumbledore growled.

He frowned at the scene before him, and realized he was still far too angry for careful rational thought. He cast notice-me-not on himself, and Apparated to downtown Aberdeen. He didn't normally take his fury out on helpless muggles, but his anger at the Potter brat had been magnified by his familiar and demanded action. No-one would miss a few ignorant muggles, so he indulged his enraged control issues.

It took several hours for his anger to bleed away and his mind to regain focus. He took a deep breath and let it out when he realized he was finished, and immediately felt the loss of his bird. It had been decades since he felt so drained. Overextended, weak, and emotionally drained, he Apparated back to his office and sat down with a grunt.

"Rozi." He said aloud. An aged House Elf appeared immediately in front of him.

"Headmaster." It replied.

"Clean up the dead bird and bring me some tea."

"Right away, Headmaster." The Elf clicked its fingers together and Fawkes' entire perch stand, including his carcass vanished. A steaming cup of tea appeared on the desk in front of him, and the Elf vanished.

"At least someone is loyal." He told the teacup bitterly. Speaking of which, it would be about time to renew the loyalty potions on certain individuals. He made a mental note to get those distributed tomorrow, then turned his mind to the task at hand.

What to do about Potter.

It was too early to see if Step Two had borne any fruit yet, but he had a sneaking suspicion it would not be as effective as he hoped. To augment it, the most effective solution was to start a few select rumors.

The boy was clearly violent, that much was without doubt. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to weave a history of violence into Dark Lord ambitions. That may be a step too far too quickly though - better to keep that as a finishing blow. What then? He sighed. There simply wasn't anything. Damn that stupid fat muggle for terrorizing the child into accidental Apparation. If he'd just done the bloody job he'd intended, none of this shit would have happened.

He sighed again. The boy had no glaring insecurities, no obvious character defects, no deformities, no suspect associations. It would be down to Albus to serve the Greater Good once again, as that afternoon's muggles had done. He would have to manufacture a situation to exploit, and that meant choosing a patsy. Luckily, he already had one of those. A stupid, lazy one prone to anger, jealousy, and unreasoned action. One who luckily had a younger sister. It would take a chance meeting, a quick altering of memories, and young Ronald would fly at Potter like a loosed arrow.

Yes, that was a sound plan. He relaxed into his chair and sipped his tea.

"Phineus, would you be so kind as to let me know when and where young Ginevra Weasley is alone in the halls?"

"I sense a plot in the making, Albus. Very well, I shall do as you ask."

"Thank you, Phineus."

"Quite welcome, Albus." Phineus grinned with a sidelong glance.

  
  


* * *

  
  


A loud CRACK echoed through the room. Harry and Hermione were both on their feet before the echo faded. Adrenaline pumped through them both as they searched the room for threats.

"Mistress!" Lammy called. "Mistress bes helping Lammy please?" Harry sat down on the bed and let out a large breath. Hermione jumped off the bed and knelt in front of Lammy.

"Of course, Lammy. What's wrong?"

"Old Hogwarts Elf Rozi bringed poor pretty bird to put in trash. Mistress can fix pretty bird?" Lammy held up a stiff red-plumed body, mostly encased in ice.

Harry jumped off the bed to look as well. "What kind of bird is it?" He asked.

"It looks like a phoenix. Lammy, do you know this bird? Is this Dumbledore's phoenix?"

"Lammy doesn't knows for sure, Mistress."

Hermione retrieved her wand from the nightstand and flicked it at one of the bookshelves. A book floated to her waiting hand, and she tucked her wand behind her ear before she flipped through the book. It took her a few moments, but she pointed at a page with a tight grin, then showed it to Harry.

"It IS a phoenix." He looked at the page she indicated, and the picture was indeed identical to the frozen bird.

"Alright, so... should we set it on fire?" He asked. "If they're reborn from their own ashes..."

"Good thinking." She nodded. "Theoretically that should work. You want to breathe on it or should I?"

"Let's both do it, but we shouldn't do that in here." He looked at the walls lined with books. "Bad idea. Outside maybe?"

"Let's go." Hermione nodded and pulled her coat from the rack by the door. "The courtyard near the kitchens you think?"

Harry nodded. "As good a spot as any." He took the frozen bird from Lammy's outstretched arms. "Could you get a large bowl please Lammy? We'll need something to keep the ashes in."

Lammy nodded and disappeared with a _pop_.

Harry followed Hermione out of the hideyhole and downstairs to the courtyard. He placed the frozen bird on the stones in the center of the courtyard, and stood back to hold Hermione's hand.

"Together?" She asked.

He smiled at her. "Burn with me."

She smiled back at him and began to Resonate. He seized his own power and did the same.

"Three. Two. One." Hermione counted down, then breathed gently on the bird. Harry matched her power and aim a split second later, and their fire mixed to form a blazing white and aquamarine hemisphere centered on the frozen phoenix. They breathed for the space three heartbeats, and by mutual handsqueeze stopped.

The ice, the red plumage, the stiff body - all were gone. In their place was a pile of soft, dry ash. Lammy stepped forward with a large ceramic bowl, then clicked her fingers and the ash appeared inside the bowl.

"Thank you Lammy." Hermione said softly and knelt to hug the Elf. "For your help and for alerting us to the poor phoenix. Brilliant work."

Lammy beamed at her. "Lammy bes happy to help friend Mistress. Lammy bes thanking friend Mistress for helping poor pretty bird."

Hermione looked at Harry then, her eyes full of tentative question. Harry nodded once and took the bowl from Lammy.

"I would like to talk to you for a while Lammy, if you have time?" Hermione asked.

Lammy nodded emphatically. "Lammy can takes time now. Duties bes light after dinner."

They went back to the hideyhole and by the time they arrived, Harry noticed movement within the ashes in the bowl. He set the bowl on one of the dressers and brushed ashes gently from the moving mound within. The black beak and face were first to be revealed, followed by snow-white plumage with bright aquamarine banding on the crown and tailfeathers. Most of the white feathers had faint aquamarine on the very tips. There was a small patch of azure feathers around the face, and Fawkes's belly had turned to wintergreen feathers with white tips.

"Wow." Hermione breathed and came over to brush the soft feathers. "What happened?" She looked at Harry.

Harry looked back at her and made his eyes wide as he shrugged. "I don't know anything about phoenixes except they're magical."

"Are you alright?" Harry asked it.

The bird gave a short, high-pitched trill of happy exuberance.

"Well, that answers that." Hermione smiled. "I think you're beautiful." She took the bowl and put it on the dresser that had her mirror on it. "There, now you can see if you like the new you as well.

The bird trilled again, turned to the mirror and began to preen.

"Certainly didn't expect that." Harry said.

"I'm just happy it worked and the poor thing is alright." Hermione replied.

"Lammy bes amazed! Lammy not knows Mistress and Master breathes fire like dragons."

"That's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about, Lammy." Hermione sat on the loveseat, forward with her elbows on her knees. "I would like to know why Elves serve. Why are Elves not free? Why do you enjoy being slaves to wizards and witches?"

Lammy cocked her head to the side, like she didn't quite understand the question. "Lammy bes free, Mistress. Lammy only bes alive because Hogwarts lets Lammy serve."

"Hm." Hermione frowned. "Let's try a different angle. You know that wizards and witches do whatever they want whenever they want and don't answer to anyone, right?"

Lammy shook her head. "But that not bes true, Mistress. Wizards and witches all tries to be the ones other wizards and witches answers to. Mistress answers to Headmaster and to Ministry. Ministry answers to International Ministry. Lammy listens to Headmaster because Headmaster bes in charge of Hogwarts. Lammy needs Hogwarts to live, so Lammy answers. Mistress needs Ministry to live, so Mistress answers."

It was Hermione's turn to cock her head to the side. She hadn't considered any of that. Did Lammy see her own situation better than she did? Was she really free herself? She needed money to live, she couldn't just make food from nothing. She couldn't just decide to live wherever she felt like. She couldn't even escape the fucking school. Was it really just down to a choice of where and who to serve? Lammy had that choice, and _she_ didn't. Was Lammy really _more_ free already?

Harry crossed the room and sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her. She had begun to feel adrift, as though she floated above her loveseat, and his arms grounded her again. She turned to look at him.

"I thought I was free." She said in a small voice. "I thought we could do whatever we wanted, I didn't even think of laws as chains."

He rested his forehead on hers. "That's why my time as a dragon was so nice, despite having nothing. There were still laws to obey, but I was more free than I am now. I traded that freedom for learning and additional privileges. I found you, and I'm looking forward to being chained to you forever. None of us are truly free, Hemione. That would be really, really lonely. Isn't the most important thing how happy you are?"

She looked into his eyes. His soft, green, supportive eyes, and realized he was right. "I was so concerned with how free Elves weren't I didn't stop to think how free _we_ aren't." She sighed and kissed him. "Thanks, Harry. I'm looking forward to being chained to you too." She smiled, pleased and humbled by the warmth that bloomed in his eyes.

She pulled her head back from his and turned to Lammy then.

"I want you to make me a promise, Lammy." She said.

"If Lammy can, Mistress." Lammy looked confused and a little worried as she shifted from foot to foot anxiously.

"I want you to promise me that if you are ever not _completely_ happy that you come and talk to me about it. Or Harry. We both want you to be very happy. Can you make that promise?"

Lammy nodded and smiled. "Yes Mistress. Lammy promises to come and talk to you or Master if Lammy bes not completely happy."

Hermione smiled and nodded. "Good. Then how would you feel about being part of our family?"

Lammy's ears raised as her eyes went wide and she gawped at Hermione. "Mistress would bond to Lammy?" She asked softly.

"I wanted to make sure that it means you are not our slave, Lammy. I _hate_ slavery. I want you to be happy and fulfilled and know that you are not just our friend, but part of our family. That means you eat with us, you celebrate with us, you talk with us, and live with us. Can you do that?"

Lammy nodded hard enough to make her ears flap, though she bit both her lips.

"Okay good. You're my friend, Lammy, part of my family just like my parents and Harry's family and Luna. The words Mistress and Master are subservient words, they mean when you use them that we are above you in importance, and that is not true. I would like you to not use them anymore. If you have to use something other than just our names, Mister and Missus would be alright I guess, but I would prefer if you just call us Harry and Hermione."

"Lammy can says Mister and Missus. Harry and Hermione not bes respectful."

"You don't need to be respectful, Lammy. We're your family, not your owners. You're our equal."

"Lammy not bes equal when Lammy needs Mister and Missus to live." She argued.

Hermione sighed. "I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree on that for now. How exactly do we make you part of the family? I don't know how."

"Just makes connection with Lammy. Reach out with magics and accept Lammy, then Lammy bes family."

Harry slipped his hand into Hermione's and began to Resonate. She smiled at him quickly and followed suit. She could feel his Resonance harmonize with her own, and she gently, carefully, pushed their Harmony toward Lammy. Lammy's eyes went huge immediately and she went rigid. A high keening note issued from her throat. Hermione backed off immediately, and Lammy collapsed like a wet noodle.

Harry changed his Resonance and levitated her onto the bed. Hermione felt him do it, _understood_ how he did it. It was so simple when they were like that, so easy. Almost sadly she let go of their Harmony as she stopped Resonating and moved to the bed to examine Lammy. Her pulse was strong and steady, her breath easy. She ran her hands over Lammy's head, and there was no damage. No soft spots, no blood. Whatever had happened to her, it was magical in nature and she was unconscious.

"I can't tell if there's anything wrong." She told Harry. "Physically she seems okay, but magically? I don't know enough about how she should be to be able to tell if she is or not."

"Do you know anyone who could look after her? Not sure Madam Pomfrey would know how either."

Hermione shook her head and bit her lip as she looked at the unconscious Elf.

"If she hasn't woken by morning I'll go to MacMillan House and see if I can borrow Brin to come check on her."

Hermione nodded. "Thanks, Harry." She pulled her wand out and enlarged her bed, then hung up her coat by the door again. She took her shoes off again and put them by the door, then climbed into bed on the far side of Lammy. She lay down but propped up on one elbow while she looked at Harry over Lammy's unconscious form.

Harry hid a smile as he understood, and re-readied himself for bed, then climbed in on the other side of Lammy. Only then did Hermione actually lie down. She put her arm over Lammy and quested with her fingers until she found him and pulled his arm over Lammy until she could interlace her fingers with his. She let out a small sigh then, and went still.

Harry smiled to himself as he got comfortable and turned out the lights.

When they awoke, Hermione's back was against Harry's chest, his arm wrapped around her, and her arms wrapped around his. Harry woke first to the smell of butterscotch, jasmine and parchment, and buried his face further into her curls with a deep breath.

She woke then and hugged his arm closer to her with a deep breath. "Mmmm. Now that's how to wake up." Her voice was cracked and thick from sleep, and she cleared her throat.

Harry kissed her head and cleared his own throat. "You feel wonderful."

She let his arm go and propped herself up on her elbow to look around. "Where's Lammy?" She asked anxiously. "Lammy?" She called.

A soft, barely-audible _pop_ sounded in the center of the room.

"You called, Missus?" Lammy asked. Her voice had grown deeper and smoother. It was a girl's voice, rather than a nervous squeak. Her ears were no longer floppy things, but had shrunk and grown stiff and lay against the sides of her head at an upward angle. Her eyes seemed appropriate size for her head, and her face had become more streamlined. She looked almost half-way between human and House-Elf, with a little dragon thrown in. She was also nearly four feet tall.

"Yes Lammy, I was worried about you. You collapsed last night. You look different now, are you feeling alright?"

Lammy smiled. "I feel wonderful, Missus. Thank you for asking. The connection you offered to your magics was overwhelming, that's all. I needed to sleep while I adjusted to your power."

"Your speech is different too." Harry noted.

"It just seems easier to understand now." Lammy shrugged.

"I don't suppose you can talk to Fawkes now too? Find out what happened with him?"

Lammy shook her head. "I can't, Mister and Missus. I'm sorry."

Fawkes perched on the lip of the bowl he'd been in from last night, his feathers clean and gleaming brightly. He sang a few happy notes, and while Harry and Hermione had no clue what he had actually said, they both found that they understood the meaning behind his voice.

 _Thank you for saving me_.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and then back to Fawkes.

"What happened to you?" She asked.

 _Freedom. Bond broken._ Fawkes sang joyfully.

"That's a good thing?" Harry asked.

Hermione crossed to the tiny bird and brushed her fingernails through the soft feathers. "You poor thing. You can stay with us as long as you want. Are you hungry? What do you eat?"

Fawkes trilled happily, with a warble at the end that gave them the impression of large wobbling rats, or maybe slithering snakes.

"I agree Fawkes, you are free to stay with us for as long as you want, and we'll be happy to call you a friend. I'll go get you some rats right now." Harry said, and paused to hug Lammy on his way to get his coat. "Glad you're alright, Lammy."

"Mister Harry, please relax and prepare for your day. I will fetch some rats." Lammy said with a smile just before she disappeared with a soft _pop_.

"Lammy's part of our family too, Fawkes," Hermione explained, "You're welcome in our family as well, or we can transport you somewhere else if you'd rather."

Fawkes sang of honour and contentment. _You are Light. I will stay._

Harry threw a smile at the singing bird. "Welcome to the family," He said, "This is great, you must be some kind of magic, Hermione."

"Me? What's Fawkes got to do with me?" She frowned at him.

"I just found you, and already our family has grown by two." He grinned cheekily.

Hermione laughed as she blushed and swatted his shoulder. "Prat."

  
  


* * *

  
  


Neville fell in beside them as they made their way to Defense class. "Missed you two at lunch." He said.

"Are you sure you weren't just catching a nap instead?" Harry grinned wryly.

"I only did that a couple of times, and the last was two weeks ago." Neville bristled. "I'm mostly used to getting up for training by now."

"Relax, mate, I'm only teasing. We missed lunch because we were out for a soar." Harry grinned.

"What were you doing to make yourselves sore? Or is this something I don't want to know?"

Hermione stifled a giggle. "No, Nev. We _weren't_ sore, we were _out for a_ soar. Harry took me flying out over the hills. It was a lovely time."

"Oh. That's nice then. I thought you might have been strategizing over the impending Tournament task next week."

Hermione frowned and glared at Harry, who frowned and sighed. "Without knowing what it is, there isn't much I can do to prepare. We're already practicing the entire seventh year charms and defense curriculum in our spare time. I don't know what else to do. Unlike _some_ people, I refuse to sacrifice sleep and grind myself into the ground out of worry."

"It was only an extra half hour or so." Hermione sniped.

"And that would be fine for the first few days. After getting a half hour less sleep for three or four days, we'd be braindead and so tired we wouldn't even able to focus on the regular classload. It's a losing proposition, Hermione. We're better served by being well-rested, fresh, sharp, and able to think on our feet."

Hermione pouted. "I _know_! It's just..."

Harry's tone softened and he put an arm around her. "I know, Hermione. I know. I don't feel I know enough either. I don't feel I've prepared enough either. You just can't let that feeling drive you to sacrifice your ability to perform. You know I'll do my best, but it isn't like I actually _wanted_ to enter. I'm not trying to win."

She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder as they walked. "I keep forgetting that bit, to be honest. I'm not really worried you'll die, you're too good for that. I guess I get a little competitive."

"Dragons are the masters of their domains. It's only natural for you to feel that way. Just keep reminding yourself you're not establishing a territory." Harry whispered to her before he pressed a kiss to her temple.

"Still no leads on who entered your name?" Neville asked when they'd finished whispering.

"No." Harry answered. "I have my suspicions, but there's no proof yet."

"Damn." Neville said under his breath.

Harry smiled at him. "No worries. It'll come out and justice will be served. It's just a matter of time.

"Hunh." Neville grunted. "Not sure I could have your confident attitude about it. People _die_ in this tournament, every single time. I'd be worried someone was trying to kill me."

"Oh they are." Harry replied, "Absolutely that's what it is. The moment my name was called Hermione grabbed me and said 'don't go, it's a setup'. It's absolutely a trap meant to kill me, but we know that. They don't know that we know though, so with diligence and a little luck we'll be able to turn the tables."

Neville nodded. "Alright, good. That actually makes me feel a little better about it. Anything I can do to help, just ask. You know I'm behind you."

Harry chuckled. "We know, Nev. You don't need to keep saying it."

"I know. I just... it would be nice to be able to do something for you for a change." Neville quirked one corner of his mouth ruefully.

"Keep being my big brother and we'll call it even." Harry grinned.

"That's a given." Neville grinned back, "Even if I do feel like the younger brother most of the time."

"To quote Indiana Jones, it's not the years, it's the mileage." Harry told him. Hermione chuckled, but Neville frowned.

"Who?"

"Character in a Movie. Muggles make plays out of books and record the staging of those plays, and show them all over the world. They're called Movies. I'll show you once summer rolls around. I would say over Christmas, but I'm pretty sure we'll be busy over Christmas. I have some meetings at Gringott's to go to."

"Oh. I've heard some of the Muggle-borns talking about them, but I've never seen one." Neville replied. "We get some time at Easter too, maybe then?"

Harry nodded. "That sounds like a plan. Maybe you could bring Daphne?" He looked at Hermione to see what she thought of the idea. She looked back at him and smiled, but they didn't have time for more conversation, as they had reached the Defense classroom.

They filed inside and took their seats, Harry next to Hermione, Neville in front of them next to Lavender. There were only a few students there before they arrived, Daphne among them. Harry took one look at the chalkboard at the front of the class and his brows knit into a frown. The heading at the top of the board, in Moody's hasty scrawl, was UNFORGIVABLES.

The rest of the class filed in and took their seats as well, followed by Moody himself. When he reached the front of the classroom he pointed his wand at the door, and it slammed shut and locked itself just as Ronald Weasley's face appeared in a flat out run in the corridor.

"Aw no, shit!" Came Ronald's plaintive voice as the door closed in his face. Most of the class chuckled, as it was not a rare occurrence.

"Today," Moody bellowed over the laughter, "We will be doing something different!" He stomped over to the chalkboard and tapped the word UNFORGIVABLES with a piece of chalk. "Who can tell me why the unforgivable curses are so named?"

Lavender put her hand up.

"Miss Brown?' Moody pointed at her.

"Because each of the Unforgivables constitutes a heinous crime and carries an automatic sentence in Azkaban." Lavender said.

"Precisely!" Moody shouted back. "The Ministry thinks you're too young to know about them, thinks you should all be coddled and raised ignorant, pliable little sheep. I say different! Wipe the smirk off your face, Mister Finnegan and name me an Unforgivable!"

"Uhh..." Finnegan's face fell out of its smirk and into a puddle of panic.

"That's what I thought!" Moody shouted at Seamus. "You can think about it when you join Mister Weasley in detention tonight!"

Seamus muttered curses under his breath as he pouted.

"Miss Greengrass, an Unforgivable if you would be so kind!" Moody growled.

"The Imperius Curse." Daphne supplied in her cold, dispassionate voice.

"The Imperius Curse!" Moody echoed, louder. "An insidious piece of work, designed to usurp the will of the victim and replace it with the will of the caster." He opened a jar on the desk that contained a grasping spider, and enlarged it to the size of a dinner plate with a quick " _Engorgio_ ", then jabbed his wand at it and shouted " _Imperio_!"

Hermione's hand gripped Harry's tightly, and he returned her squeeze as his brows fell.

The spider leapt onto Neville's desk and began to dance as Moody's wand directed it, then it suddenly leapt onto Lavender's chest and crawled up her robes as she squealed. The spider leapt onto Neville's head, and from there across the aisle onto Dean Thomas, and from him onto Draco Malfoy seated behind Thomas. Most of the classroom laughed at its antics and the reactions of those it touched. After Draco's high-pitched voice cried "Get it off, get it off!" to Pansy who was seated next to him, Moody directed the spider with a few hops back to the front desk where it crouched over a beaker of water.

"What should we have her do for her next trick?" Moody asked with a smile that slowly fell, along with the joviality of his voice as he spoke. "Drown herself? No? How about bite her own legs off? I know, let's have her eat her own children!” The very temperature of the room seemed to drop as all the students realized that Moody wasn't playing games with a spider, but with them. Smiles dropped from faces and laughter seemed a stranger. “The Imperious curse makes all that possible and more. In fact, there were a great many who claimed they only did You-Know-Who's bidding because they were under the Imperius. Mister Malfoy! Give us another Unforgivable!”

"The... Cruciatus curse." Draco said softly, as though he knew what his words would bring.

"The torture curse." Moody said grimly as he nodded. He pointed his wand at the spider again and growled " _Crucio_!" The class was completely silent, and his growl seemed to echo loudly in the room.

The spider jerked and shivered and didn't stop contorting itself in hideous, unnatural ways. After an eternity of being forced to watch the spider twist and writhe, Moody looked up at the class. "Who knows the last Unforgivable? Mister Goyle!"

"Uh... Killing Curse." Goyle answered.

"There you have it." Moody glared at the class, his lips pulled back in a rictus grin. "The favourite curse of You-Know-Who." He pointed his wand at the spider. " _Avada Kedavra_!" A sickly green bolt shot from the end of Moody's wand and the spider went suddenly, finally still. Sepulchral silence owned the classroom and allowed not a sound until Moody spoke again.

"The Killing curse. Instantly, Irrevocably, and _Always_ fatal. Only one creature in history has ever survived it, and he died at the hands of a _muggle_ barely a day later. You know who I'm talking about don't you, Mister _MacFusty_." Moody had stopped prowling the front of the room and stood stock still, his eyes locked onto Harry's.

"Actually sir," Harry replied, "There's no evidence one way or _Expelliarmus_!" Moody's wand jumped out of his hand and into Harry's. " _Petrificus Totalus_!" Moody's arms and legs locked together and he pitched forward onto the floor.

The class erupted into chaos.

"The fuck are ya doin' MacFusty!?" Finnegan yelled.

"You can't do that to a Professor!" Someone else shouted.

Harry ignored them. "Ask Lammy to find Susan please. We need her Aunt." He whispered to Hermione. He then promptly vanished along with Moody.

"Where'd he go?!" Someone shouted.

"We're not allowed to Apparate yet!" Someone else yelled.

Hermione paused to look at Neville before she applied her nondetections and vanished as well. Someone opened the classroom door and ran out, and others saw that students were leaving and left themselves. In a matter of minutes the class was empty.

Harry picked Moody up and carried him to the fourth floor, to classroom four F. He transfigured three of the desks into a long table, and laid Moody on top of it.

The door opened a few minutes later, then closed again by itself.

"Duncan?" A whispered voice asked. It was Hermione.

Harry pointed his wand at Moody and stunned him. He was harmless at that point, but he didn't want the man overhearing their conversation.

'Here." He answered. He removed the bodybind from Moody and glued him and his wand to the tabletop instead. it would last longer.

Hermione appeared in front of him with a tense look on her face. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

He cancelled his own nondetections and smiled at her. "He cast _all three_ Unforgivables in a classroom full of kids. Casting just one gets you a one-way ticket to Azkaban, and the law doesn't care _why_ you cast it. Moody would _know_ that. You heard him introduce himself at the beginning of the year. He's an _ex-Auror_."

"So you think he's gone mental?"

"Either Moody has gone mental and is a danger to the students, or this isn't Moody. Either way, it's a job for the DMLE, not us."

Hermione nodded. "That's sound. He's a danger either way and needs to be removed. I'm not really surprised though, someone did let a Troll into the castle first year, and Dementors last year. Hogwarts just isn't a safe environment."

"Not with its current Headmaster, at any rate."

"You think he had something to do with it?"

"Whether he did or not..." Harry began,

"He knows about it and allowed it to happen. Right."

Hermione glared at Moody like she tried to see under his skin.

"Where are we meeting Susan's Aunt?" He asked her.

"Here. I hoped you'd bring him here, it worked out well the last time with your Godfather and Pettigrew."

"You're so brilliant." He grinned at her.

"You're a bit of alright yourself." She smiled back.

They held hands while they waited, but each seemed reluctant to start tongue wrestling when they knew the head of the DMLE and Aurors were on their way.

"Do you think he knows?" Harry asked her in the quiet. "I mean, it seemed really pointedly about me there at the end."

Hermione frowned as she thought. "It's possible. We know his magical eye sees through the back of his own head, maybe it can see through your hair to your scar too."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, that does seem likely, since the back of his head is covered in hair."

The door opened again a few minutes of thoughtful silence later, and two red-robed Aurors instantly swept the room with their wands as they scanned for threats. Harry and Hermione stood next to Moody's still unconscious form, all four of their hands raised.

A dour-looking woman entered after them, and motioned for them to lower their wands. Dumbledore entered after her, followed by McGonagall.

"Assaulting Professors now, are you Mister MacFusty?" Dumbledore tut-tutted.

"If that's what you think." Harry replied. "I prefer to think of it as arresting a criminal who cast all three Unforgivables in a class full of students."

The dour-looking woman spun her head to look at Harry instantly. "You mean to say that this man, Alastor Moody, actually _cast_ all three Unforgivables? In a class?"

Harry and Hermione both nodded. "There's his wand. Check it." Harry pointed to it.

The dour-looking woman tried to pick up Moody's wand from the tabletop, but couldn't.

"Ah, I glued it down, sorry. Thought it would be prudent." Harry said. Amelia just flicked her own wand at it, then picked it up.

"Come now Amelia, you can't seriously believe the accusations of a child -" Dumbledore began, but the dour-looking woman, Amelia - presumably Susan's Aunt - cut him off.

"Alastor Moody was my mentor for a decade, Albus. It was a point of pride with him that had _never_ cast an Unforgivable, and yet he casts all three at once for a _demonstration_? Either this man is _not_ Alastor Moody, or he's gone right 'round the twist and is a danger. Either way, these two students have done _your_ job and kept the castle safe."

Dumbledore closed his mouth and stared hard at Harry and Hermione, all trace of twinkle gone from his eyes.

Amelia tested Moody's wand and found all three Unforgivables in a row, Killing Curse, Cruciatus, and Imperius.

"The evidence says these students are right. Arrest Moody." She told the Aurors.

The Aurors removed the sticking charm on Moody as well, and sat him up.

"Your wands too." Ameila held her hand out to Harry and Hermione. When they handed their wands over, she checked them as well. She found Disillusionment, Silence, Odorless, Stun, Bodybind, and Sticking charms from Harry's, and Disillusionment, Silence, Odorless, Drying, and Mending charms from Hermione's.

Amelia handed them back their wands as the Aurors fastened manacles around Moody's wrists, and then barked an order. "Everyone back away!" She shouted as she pulled her wand and pointed it at Moody. "Something's happening to his face!"

Harry and Hermione held hands as they backed away as ordered. Moody's face had begun to bubble, so Harry began to Resonate, ready to throw a shield up in front of Hermione. Thankfully, his face merely bubbled and changed instead of exploding. The horrific bubbling continued for a long moment, and then as it subsided, Moody turned into someone they'd never seen before.

Amelia immediately stunned the ex-Moody again and whirled on Dumbledore. "You had a known Death Eater teaching classes in your school?!" She demanded.

"You saw it yourself, Amelia. He used Polyjuice. How was I to know?" Dumbledore replied with his hands out sideways and his shoulders up.

Amelia narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes, clearly the fact that you've known Alastor most of his life would give you no basis on which to ascertain his validity."

The Aurors fastened a second set of manacles around the ex-Moody's ankles.

"Nevermind him." Amelia told them. "I'll take Junior. You two go arrest Barty Crouch Senior."

The two Aurors nodded in acknowledgement.

"Aye aye."

"You got it boss."

They both left the room and disappeared down the hall.

"Minerva? If I could impose upon your floo once again?"

"Of course, Amelia. Whenever you need." McGonagall replied.

"Thank you." Amelia smiled at McGonagall, then floated Moody off the table and out through the door.

Dumbledore didn't even bother to look at them as he left.

McGonagall gave them both a small smile and said "Twenty points each to Gryffindor," before she left to follow the headmaster.

"Is it just me or was Dumbledore offering pathetic excuses for housing a danger to everyone in the castle?" Harry asked sourly.

Hermione grunted in reply. "Susan's aunt seems alright, but I learned early you can't trust a single word that comes out of their mouths. Any of them." Her voice dripped venom. "Especially not the Headbastard. He's playing some kind of game with the lives of everyone in the castle. Do you know what he said to me after Ronald pissed in my bookbag? That I should forgive him. That everyone deserved a second chance - except me, of course. I got a month's detention for standing up for myself. I heard him chuckling about it later to Snape. Called me 'that ugly little dirtblood'."

Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione from behind and kissed the top of her head. "Sorry I wasn't here to help with that."

She snorted, even as she snuggled backward into him. "Hardly your fault the people who are supposed to have our utmost trust are actually villains. They all seem nice and on your side, but the instant they have to make a decision, they go to the Headbastard and all of a sudden you're the arsehole who's kicked puppies instead of an injured girl. They're worthless, every last one."

"Should I be making a list of people in need of recompense?" He asked her with an edge to his voice.

"No need, I memorized it."

"Of course you did." He chuckled, and squeezed her tight.

"The only reason I'm even here is because I couldn't escape. You know that."

"That'll change in a month. You'll be Lady Potter and we could transfer to France, Germany, Italy, or Switzerland with equal ease. Anywhere you want to go, Hermione, say the word and we're out of here."

She spun in his arms to face him and kissed him. "I still can't believe that you're you, much less that we're married and I'm some kind of noble Lady."

"I can scarcely believe I'm me, and I'm me. I still think I'm just some lucky sod who got rescued by a good Mother, and I'll be back to hunting goats for breakfast when school is over. I don't even know who this Harry Potter person is."

"Good thing you have Sirius to show you then."

"There is that, yes. I should write to him, I haven't even thought about him since the Three Broomsticks."

"Well, I have done my best to keep you occupied." She grinned at him through lowered lashes and sucked on his lower lip.

"Mmmnng." He moaned as he kissed her back. "As only you can."

"Only me!" She grinned. "Mine." She kissed him. "Mine." Again. "Mine. All mine." She smiled up at him.

He captured her lips again, softly and tenderly and looked into her eyes. "Still think I'm getting the better part of that deal." He smiled.

"Delusional." She scoffed. "You know, since there's no Defense class anymore, it strikes me that we have a bit of free time before dinner. Let's go flying again."

"You're just a fiend for it now. Honestly I think it was just an aversion to brooms before."

She giggled. "Hardly! It's thanks to your gift that I can't _fall_ , and thanks to your birthday gift that I'm not _cold_ , so now it's just endless fun and beautiful views."

He bent and nuzzled noses with her. "Now you know how I feel all the time." He looked into her eyes. "Nothing but beautiful views, and I can't fall because I'm already falling."

She bit her lip as she looked back into his eyes, and hers seemed to glow with amber intensity. " _That_ is getting you snogged half to death... but later. I want to go flying first." She kissed the end of his nose and flounced her curls in his face as she strode off toward the astronomy tower.

Scant minutes later they each Resonated and fell from the tower, only to laugh as they swooped east over the Forbidden Forest. They spiralled around each other as they came together slowly, until they finally touched and held each other as they danced across the sky. They waltzed, they tangoed, they spun and dipped and soared. Their laughter rang out and was lost to the fluffy grey clouds, until Hermione had finally had enough and wrapped her arms around him. She lay her head on his shoulder and held him against her.

"I never could have imagined this last year, Harry. I'm so happy right now I can barely contain it." She sighed quietly.

"I'm just happy to be here with you, Hermione. You're so smart and so strong and so brilliant. Tender and sparkling and warm and wonderful. I'm proud and humbled to be your Mate."

They weren't just words. She knew they weren't. She knew he meant every syllable, and that was a step too far. Her tears escaped and pooled in the hollow of his clavicle. "I don't deserve you, Harry." She cried. She had tried desperately to hold it in, to make believe as long as she could, but that truth simply slipped out and left her open, vulnerable, and afraid.

He just held her closer and stroked her hair and kissed her teary cheek. "Magic says you do." He said tenderly. "I don't think I deserve you either, but Magic knows better than I do. Magic says we belong to each other, so what choice do I have but to believe?"

Her tears renewed themselves as she squeezed him tighter still, but the fear and doubt that lived in a tangled knot in her stomach grew warm and began to melt away. The words were there on her lips, but she was still afraid to let them out. Still afraid something would take him away. Still afraid she would wake up with a busted knee and a piss-stained bookbag. She did note with a small internal smile that she wasn't afraid she would overhear him laughing with Neville about how he had duped her. The thought was laughable.

They drifted through the air slowly, standing on nothing for a long moment, when something bright caught her eye below. The sun had fallen mostly behind the hills to the west and nestled their surroundings in a peach and lavender blanket of twilight. The trees below them were only barely lit at their tips, and the darkness beneath provided the contrast on which the sudden brightness bloomed.

"Did you see that?" She asked him, then sniffed.

"Where?" He asked.

"In the forest, just there." She pointed. As she did, the brightness bloomed again briefly.

"Saw it that time. Looked like fire, just for a second."

She wiped her face on her sleeve and sniffed again as she let go of him - except for his hand - to descend slowly toward the intermittent light.

They dropped silently into a clearing in the trees. The clearing was filled with four enormous cages and an army of witches and wizards, most of them wearing dragonhide clothing. As they watched the carefully directed ballet, a huge gout of orange flame sprayed out from one of the cages.

"Dragons." Hermione whispered. "I can hear them talking. They're angry and upset. Something about their eggs."

Harry nodded. He could hear them too, of course. "I think we just found out what the first Tournament Task is." He said.

  
  


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Cedric had a smile for a change. It had taken three weeks, but he'd found a reason to smile again, and in an odd sort of way he had Duncan to thank for it. Of course, he had Duncan to thank for his lack of a smile in the first place, but only indirectly. Nobody had forced Cho to do what she did or intend what she'd intended.

Thinking about it chased his smile away again, but he took a deep breath and let it out. It was over. The wound was still fresh, but talking to Fleur about it had helped. She had ironed out some of his pain - partly with logic, partly just by offering a sympathetic ear and not judging him for his hurt. He hated to admit it, but MacFusty had been right about her. She had a ready wit, a smile he could feel, and she didn't take crap from anyone. He had admired that about Cho too, except now he had to wonder how much of it was real and how much of it was facade.

'Actually,' He reminded himself, 'That doesn’t matter now, and I don't want to know anyway. I probably dodged a curse there. Who knows what she would have done behind my back.'

His smile returned as he forced thoughts of Cho out of his mind, and when he arrived in the Great Hall for dinner he decided to go sit with Fleur and thank her for being there for him when he was low. If nothing else, she'd already proven herself a good friend.

He waved to his housemates as he entered, but walked instead to the end of the Ravenclaw table where the Beauxbatons ladies usually sat. Sure enough, Fleur was there seated next to her friend Arielle.

"Bon soir, mademoiselles. Would you mind if I sit with you?"

Fleur looked up at him and smiled like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. "Cedrique! Please, seat weez us! Bon soir mon ami!"

He found himself grinning as he sat. Her enthusiasm was infectious. "How was your day?" he asked.

He only understood half of her reply, but he counted that as doing well, since her reply took ten minutes. He smiled the whole way through, asked questions about the parts he did understand, and then asked if Arielle had a similar day. She had, since she and Fleur were together for most of it.

"'Ow are you feeling today?" Fleur asked him.

He drew a breath to reply, but all that came out was "Haaa!" as something poked him in the ribs. He might have been more embarrassed by it, but something apparently poked Fleur in the ribs at the same moment, and she let out a short, sharp "Eeep!"

Two pieces of parchment materialized on the table in front of them, one in front of Fleur and one in front of him.

He paused to look around, and didn't see anything out of the ordinary until Duncan simply appeared out of thin air at the Gryffindor table and winked at him.

He nodded back, and picked up the parchment.

**Was out flying around just having a lark, saw something interesting in the Forbidden Forest.**

**Dragons. The first task is Dragons.**

**-Duncan.**

He stared at it in disbelief for a moment before he looked up at Fleur. She had her note in her hand as well and her face had gone white as snow.


	9. Chapter 9

  
  


Arthur stepped through the green flames and appeared in his living room, only to sag backward against the fireplace. He didn't even have the energy to cast a cleaning charm to rid himself of the soot. He dropped his briefcase by the side of the fireplace and heaved himself into the kitchen where his happiest invention, the Ready Kettle, set itself to boil.

He plunked himself down at the table and rested for a moment until the kettle boiled and poured him a cup of tea. He shuffled over to the counter and sipped some of the hot liquid, and as the brew sloshed down his gullet it warmed his insides and soothed away the day's stress. After half the cup, he felt refreshed and set the cup down to see about some dinner.

Molly was off visiting her mother, so there wasn't anything to hand, but he made himself a quick sarnie and called it job done. He had time to make himself a second cup of tea and finish half the sandwich before there was a terrible clatter at the window. It was a familiar clatter, however. Erroll had botched another landing and smacked the pane again.

Sure enough, Erroll opened the door and flapped over to the table to perch on the back of the chair next to him. The owl stuck out his leg to offer him the thick note attached there. Arthur relieved Erroll of his burden and let the poor old thing go to his bed while he stared down at the note with a sigh. What was it this time? Ron needed money for chocolate frogs? Ginny needed makeup to compete with the older girls? The twins were expelled for vanishing all the clothes in the castle?

With a sigh, he set the note aside. He'd deal with whatever it was after he'd finished his sandwich. He poured himself another cup of tea and luxuriated in the quiet freedom.

All too soon the plate was empty, the tea gone, and the note stared at him ominously.

"Alright, fine." He sighed, and picked up the note.

**Dearest Father, Head of House Weasley, Carrot top Clanhead, Tinkerer Supreme, Master of Muggle Mysteries, First of His Name, Breaker of Cheese, Yadda Yadda Yadda,**

**It has come to our attention - not the royal our, obviously - that our darling baby brother ickle Ronnikins has and continues to escape the impending blood feud with House Potter by the gracious good graces of Lord Harry James Potter himself. Gred and Forge and I happen to quite like the goodly gracious Lord Potter, as he also quite likes a good prank. However, our darling baby brother ickle Ronnikins took our lovingly crafted prank for Lord Potter and removed the treacle-flavored whipped cream center we had so painstakingly painstaked and replaced it with UNDILUTED BUBOTUBER PUS.**

**As it was one of our lovingly handcrafted pranks, it naturally went off without so much as a hiccough, and sprayed the gracious good graces with said undiluted squeezings. Only the lightning fast reflexes of self-sacrificing Lord Potter prevented an immediate blood feud, as Lord Potter was standing in front of a bevy of beauties of noble birth, both foreign and domestic - Including Greengrass, Parkinson, Bones, and Delacour, just to give you some idea the damage that might have occurred if Potter hadn't deliberately taken it all.**

**Naturally, Gred and Forge and I - we - are loath to report such things, as we would much rather deal with ickle Ronnikins ourselves, but neither of us are obtuse enough to think such things should not also be reported to you as Head of House. Regardless what our angles are, you need to be notified and suitably prepared for the blazing ball of fire that ickle Ronnikins is desperately trying to call down upon our poor overly-stuffed home.**

**Seriously dad, Ron is going to get himself killed and there won't be anything we can do about it. Lord Potter seems like a decent sort, so he may demand an audience with you first. We've seen what he's capable of, and he could wipe out Clan Weasley by himself without breaking a sweat. Do something about Ron for the good of the family. Please.**

**Also, Lord Potter is not using his real name, so don't tell anyone he's here. I imagine he's not keen on Death Eaters crawling up his kyber. Address anything you want to send him to Duncan MacFusty.**

**-Your dutiful sons, Breakers of Wind, Yadda Yadda, Gred and Forge. And me. And me.**

_Harry Potter was alive!!_ An unexpectedly bright hope surged through him at the thought - only to be thoroughly dashed by the fact that Ronald was making him hate Weasleys. At the very least Arthur thought he should pen something to thank Potter for sparing him having to make reparations to Greengrass and Parkinson. Bones might have chalked it up to youthful pranks, she was a fair woman - but Greengrass and Parkinson... He shuddered to think about it.

He summoned parchment and quill, and attempted to set his mind into formal thinking. He only hoped that Potter would be amenable to a meeting and that it wasn't already too late.

  
  


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Ronald Weasley pouted.

He wouldn't have called it that of course, he just didn't school his face to any sort of expression and his face did whatever he felt at the time. He didn't even look at his own face unless he was brushing his teeth or combing his hair – neither of which occurred with any frequency. Nevertheless, anyone looking at him would have said he pouted.

It was MacFusty's fault of course, everything was. He couldn't just choose one bird and leave the rest for everyone else, noooo. He had to keep them all for himself and parade around with them in a huge gaggle that ensured nobody else could even get a look in. On top of that, as though that weren't enough, he didn't go to the common room! What kind of bloody Gryffindor didn't go to the bloody common room!? Do a bloke a favor, mate!

As a result, Ron had been up too late wandering about, looking for where he kept his bevy of beauties. Hadn't found squat of course, bloody MacFusty. That was why he'd taken forever to get out of bed that morning and had been dead tired all day and gotten detention from Moody. It was only luck Seamus had also gotten detention and told him about what had happened in class.

That was what had brought him to his current mental state. He _hated_ MacFusty - who wouldn't? But at the same time, the bastard had _done away_ with Moody altogether. No more Defense class, and _that_ was brilliant! So, he sat in the common room while the two feelings warred silently with each other.

The portrait door opened as he wrestled with his thoughts, and Ginny entered the common room. She had an enormous grin on her face and sat down on the sofa next to him. She ran both her hands over her stomach, and smiled at him beatifically.

"What's up with you then?" He frowned at her.

"It's just a brilliant, beautiful, brilliant day." She cocked her head to one side, still smiling, and looked down at her stomach. "It was everything I knew it would be."

" _What_ was everything you knew it would be?" Ron's frown deepened.

"I would have preferred a nice white four-poster in a field of flowers to a dusty broom closet, but when opportunity knocks..." She smiled up at him again. "Why aren't you smiling? Be happy for me, Ron. You're going to be an uncle."

The deeper the words penetrated his brain, the redder his face went.

"The _FUCK_ you mean, I'm gonna be an uncle?! You're _thirteen fucking years old_ , Ginny!! Who the fuck was it?!"

"Calm down, Ron. You'll scare the baby."

"Yeah, yeah. No scaring the baby. Right. Who's the father, Ginny? Who should I go welcome to the family?" He pulled the corners of his mouth back in a horrifying parody of a smile while he ground his teeth.

"My Prince Charming, of course. The only _real_ man in the whole castle." She smiled again and ran her hands over her stomach as she sighed his name wistfully. "My Duncan."

"FUCKING MACFUSTY!" Ron shouted as he shot to his feet and pulled his wand out. He slammed the portrait door open and stalked into the dark castle while his face bordered on purple.

  
  


* * *

  
  


They strolled into the Great Hall for breakfast hand in hand, and waved to those who waved at them. They sat in their customary place at the far end of the Gryffindor table, Luna and Neville were already there and greeted them as they sat.

"Good morning, Luna. Good morning Neville." They both said in unison. Luna giggled and Neville rolled his eyes at them.

"Keep that up, you'll give the twins a run for their money." He said.

Harry just turned and smiled at Hermione, who smiled back at him. "It's a good morning, what can I say?" Harry asked as he gazed into Hermione's eyes.

"Careful mate, someone might think you're in love." Neville chuckled.

Both Harry and Hermione blushed a light pink and looked away from each other while Luna slapped Neville's shoulder. "Hush, Neville. I think it's adorable." She scolded.

Neville's grin dropped suddenly, and he looked over Harry's shoulder. Harry felt a hand grab the hair at the back of his head and pull upward. It hurt a little, but Harry didn't move. He just slowly turned his head to look at Ronald Weasley in his vacant, furious eyes.

"Can I help you Ronald?" Harry asked in a frosty tone. He pulled Hermione down with his other hand as he could feel her begin to stand and Resonate. She reluctantly sat back down, but she didn't stop Resonating.

"Get up!" Ronald yelled. Quiet descended on the Great Hall.

"I'll handle him. Watch my back if you would?" Harry whispered to Hermione before he stood. She nodded back to him and scanned the crowd that watched them.

No sooner had Harry stood fully and turned to face Ron than a Quidditch Keeper's gauntlet smacked him full in the face and fell to the floor.

"Did you think nobody would stand up to you, you piece of shit?!" Ron bellowed. "She's only _thirteen_ , you fucking bastard!"

Harry's responding anger evaporated and he frowned. "Who's only thirteen? What are you talking about?

"Like you don't know! Pick up the gauntlet, arsehole! Are you too stupid to know when you've been challenged!?"

Harry sighed. "Are you sure this is what you want, Ronald? You wouldn't rather explain what on earth you're yelling about so we can talk about it?"

"Pick it up!" He screamed. "You and me, MacFusty! Right here right now!"

Harry shrugged. "Alright Ronald, you win. But not here. Outside." He bent over and picked Ron's gauntlet up, then handed it back to him. He then turned and walked toward the castle gates.

Hermione caught up to him and held his hand as they walked. "He has a sister. Might be what he's yapping about. If she's gone bragging about being with you in a broom closet or something..."

Harry sighed. "Okay, yeah that does make sense. I'll try to talk him out of it. Do you want to be here or could you maybe look for the sister?"

Hermione shook her head and caused her curls to fly outward briefly. "Hell no, I'm with you. His little bitch sister can deal with what her lying has done." They stopped in the front courtyard and stood together as they waited for Ronald to catch up. Harry smiled at her and rested his forehead against hers as he breathed in her scent. A huge throng of students followed behind Ronald.

"Let's go, MacFusty!" Ron shouted angrily as he approached, "You can fuck your shit-veined whore late-" He didn't get any more words out because Harry had crossed the distance between them in a flash and lifted Ron from the ground by a hand that gripped his throat.

Wind whipped around the two of them and the air above Harry's back warped with invisible flames in the shape of two great dragon wings. His eyes were incandescent as they bored into Ronald's.

"I _told you_ what would happen to you if you dared to insult her again, _Ronald_. Your stupidity and your anger have just made that a reality.” Harry growled at him, and brought him closer to his face as his eyes bored into his skull “I'm a man of my word." Harry dropped him and walked back over to Hermione.

" _Nobody_ talks about you like that." He told her, " _Nobody_. Will you be upset if I kill him?"

She shook her head with a smile. "Don't hold back on my account. I've wanted to kill him for years." She kissed him.

" _RON_!?" A screech came out of the crowd. A thin, willowy girl with long, straight red hair emerged from the crowd and strode up to Ronald and started to slap him wherever she could reach him. "What the fuck are you _doing_ , you arsehole?!"

"Shut up, Ginny! Go back inside!" Ron demanded.

"No! Don't you dare try to hurt my Duncan!" She yelled at him, then went to stand in front of Harry with her arms spread as though to protect him.

 _"Your Duncan."_ Hermione said in a low, smooth voice. Harry could see her begin to warp the air above her.

"You shut up too!" Ginny yelled at Hermione. "You think you're so great just because you're beautiful and top of the student list! He didn't give _you_ a baby though, did he? No! Just me! He loves _me_ , not you!"

Harry's eyebrows rose. "Uh... Jenny is it?"

She smiled back at him. "It's okay love, you can call me whatever you like."

"Uhh... right... Listen, when exactly did we... When was the whole baby giving thing?"

Ginny smiled and covered her stomach with her hands. "Oh you." She said patiently. "You talk like last night wasn't the best night of our lives."

Harry looked at Hermione, who glared death at Ginny. They had been together from dinner until morning. They'd had study group until curfew, then slept together as usual. Clearly someone had confounded Ginny or done something even more unpleasant.

Hermione took her wand out and whispered while she pointed it at Ginny. " _Specialis Revelio_ ". Hermione's eyes went wide then, and she leaned over and whispered to Harry.

"She's been Obliviated - really well. Better than any student could do. There are _layers_."

"Okay, that's good to know. At least I wasn't sleepwalking or potioned or something. Thank you for that. Do you think you could pick it apart or poke holes in the memory or something?"

She bit her lip and thought about it. "Maybe? With time?"

He nodded. "Something for later then." He kissed her, then turned back to Ginny and Ronald.

"Jenny, would you mind stepping away please? There's a duel happening."

"I don't want him to hurt you!" Ginny complained.

"I thank you for that, but this is a duel and you cannot stop it. Your brother challenged me and I accepted. For your own safety, please move to the sidelines." Harry took her elbow and gently guided her off to the side to stand next to Hermione. He leaned down to whisper to Hermione.

"I'm not sure about Ronald's aim, he's crap in class. Would you shield her as well if something comes this way? It's not her fault someone gave her false memories."

"No." She whispered back, furious. "If he kills her then I don't have to."

He chuckled and kissed her neck. "Point taken. If by some miracle he actually gets the better of me... I want you to know the last month or so has been the best of my life. I will do everything I can to stay with you forever." He hugged her too briefly, and strode back to the center of the crowd and readied himself for battle. He began to Resonate as he faced Ronald across the flagstones. Ronald was still angry, but had deflated somewhat.

"Are you ready, Ronald?" Harry asked.

"Are you?!" Ronald shot back. His face started to go red again.

They bowed to each other and held their wands up in front of them in a salute.

"Both combatants ready!" Neville shouted from the sidelines. Both Harry and Ron nodded to him. "BEGIN!" Neville shouted.

Ronald waved his wand wildly, as though he were trying to physically throw spells out of it. " _Slugulus Eructo_!" He shouted. The ugly yellow bolt produced went wide and high, up over the crowd and nowhere near Harry.

Harry, on the other hand, cast _Scopamultum_ to start with, and had begun to target specific bones with _Ossio Rumpitur._ He cast it over and over again but didn't release a single one. Ronald got over his initial panic after the first four or five of his spells cast successfully and Harry didn't shoot anything back at him. Ron cast slug belching curses, jellylegs jinxes, leglocker curses, Impediment jinxes, and tongue-tying curses.

Harry started to dodge them after Ron's tenth curse, as it hadn't been necessary before that. Luckily Ron was a terrible student and had no idea how to cast quickly or quietly, so his every wand movement told Harry where the curse was going to go and the fact that he shouted out his incantations told him what he dodged.

Harry could hear Hermione behind him ask what he was doing under her breath, and that gave him a little smile as he continued to build up bonebreakers without releasing them. He gave a quick wink to Hermione while Ron fired a few more shots and Harry waited for the timing to be right.

As Ron started the arm movement that would lead to another slug-belching curse, Harry let go of all the bonebreakers at once. Ron had begun to shout the incantation for his curse, but changed his vocalization into a panicked squeal as he saw dozens of grey bolts explode out of Harry's wand and speed toward him. Unfortunately for Ron, he had no chance to evade a single one of the curses.

Twenty-six separate bonebreakers slammed into Ronald and he screamed as he fell to the stones of the courtyard. Harry heard several shouts of "Merlin!" from the crowd.

He casually cast a disarming charm at Ron, and Ron's wand flipped through the air into his hand.

He looked at Neville. "Were any victory terms set?" He asked Neville. "Would you count him defeated?"

Neville looked over at Ron, who lay as a mass of quivering jello on the ground. He moaned and whined in pain as he tried not to move because that hurt more. The only reason Ron didn't scream was because it hurt to breathe with all of his ribs broken.

"Yeah, I'd say he's pretty defeated." Neville nodded. "Anyone think Ron is NOT defeated?!" Neville shouted to the crowd.

Nobody bothered to answer. "Winner MacFusty!" Neville declared.

Harry strode over to Ronald and squatted on his haunches next to him. He put Ron's wand on his chest and looked him in the eyes. "Do not EVER insult a Lady in my presence again, Ronald. ESPECIALLY not my wife. Are we clear?"

Tears dripped from his eyes, but Ronald managed a shallow nod.

"Good. Next time I will _leave you_ this way." Harry stood and pointed his wand at Ronald, and cast the first of twenty-six _Brackium Emendo_ to mend the bones he'd broken. "Your sister has been Obliviated, by the way. Someone implanted memories of her and me together. I was with fifteen other people last night until curfew, and with Hermione after that. I have never had sex with anyone, let alone your sister, and she might not have either, unless whoever did it is a real shitbag."

Harry finished the last of the bone-mending charms, and offered a hand to pull Ron to his feet. Ron moved gingerly, as though he expected moving to be painful, but gained confidence as he stood and flexed his limbs. A slow smile crept across his face as he realized he was no longer broken and in pain, only to have the smile snatched from him as Harry's hand gripped the hair at the back of his head and forced him double as Harry dragged him in front of Hermione.

"You know what to do, Ronald." Harry growled in a low, menacing tone close to his ear, "Make it good."

Ronald only hesitated a moment, then cleared his throat. "I apologize for my rash words, Lady Hermione. I'm very sorry. It won't happen again." Ron struggled through it, Harry could see every word tasted like acid on his tongue, but to his credit he struggled through the whole apology with a clear, audible voice.

"I suppose I'll accept for now then." Hermione growled. "I'm sorely tempted to turn your blood to actual shit so you can see how it feels, but I'm not in the mood to be disgusted just now."

"Thank you!" Ron's voice took on an aspect of fearful relief.

Harry let him up, but stood between him and Hermione and looked him in the eyes. "I want to kill you for what you've done to her, _Ronald_. The next time you feel like insulting her, remember that her kindness is the only thing keeping you alive." Harry let go of Ron's front and shoved him backward a step. "Now, if I were you I'd do whatever I could to get my sister to St. Mungo's to see if they can fix her false memories."

Ron nodded. His face had gone white, sweat beaded his brow, and his hands trembled as he put his arm around Ginny's shoulders and walked away with her.

"I don't know how you do it." Hermione told him as she slipped her arm around his waist and watched Ron and Ginny walk away.

"Do what?" He asked.

"Keep such a tight lid on the urge to squash insects like him."

Harry slipped his arm around her shoulders and held her as well. "That's easy." He kissed the top of her head. "I have to be someone you're proud to be with. That's far more important than any momentary satisfaction."

She looked up at him with a frown. "You mean that."

He nodded. "Of course I do. The thought of losing you is the only thing that scares me."

She stepped in front of him and wrapped her other arm around his waist, and laid her head on his chest. "You have no fears then, because you're never getting away from me. You're mine and I'm yours. Forever and ever."

That made him warm and happy inside all the way to his toes. He pressed his lips to her head while he took a deep breath of her scent. "I'm still going to keep trying though. I wouldn't want to disappoint you either."

She laughed and looked up at him. "Well, if you must." She grinned. Harry lowered his face toward hers, and intended to kiss her thoroughly, but they were interrupted by two sets of footfalls racing toward them. Hermione heard them too, and her brows tightened a little as she made it known she was put out by it. Harry smiled at her and promised her with a glance plenty more later.

"Ah, sorry to interrupt -" Twin number One began,

"Quite against our intentions, we assure you -" Twin number Two continued,

"We came as soon as we heard -" Back to One.

"To try and rescue our little idiot brother -" Forth to Two.

"Too late, of course - " Back and

"Thank you ever so much for not killing him -" Forth

"It would be hell to have to explain to the family -" Between

"And then Mum would likely spark a Blood Feud -" The Twins

"And then we'd be dead too, so -" Almost

"Just wanted to say thanks -" Like watching

"For taking it easy on ickle Ronnikins -" Tennis.

Both twins left off the twinspeak then and looked around to see if anyone else was close, but everyone who had followed them outside to watch the duel had gone back inside because it was late November in Scotland.

"Lord and Lady Potter." They finished together in a whisper.

Hermione's hand clenched around his, but she otherwise showed no sign of surprise. "Sorry, who?" She asked sweetly as she feigned ignorance.

The twins looked at each other and smiled.

"Canny, she is." One remarked.

"Savvy. Cool as a cucumber." Two replied. Two took a worn piece of parchment from his robes and unfolded it. "I'll need my wand to show you how we know, so don't fry me while I'm taking it out, alright?"

Harry nodded, amused. Hermione nodded as well, less amused.

Two took his wand out and touched the tip to the blank parchment. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He said quietly. Instantly, red writing began to cover the parchment.

"It's a map," One said, "The Marauder's Map. Shows everyone in the castle and on the grounds inside the wards."

"Aye," Two agreed. "Bless Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs, whoever and wherever they may be."

"Padfoot..." Hermione whispered. She looked at Harry.

"Yeah, and four of them, called themselves The Marauders, known for pranking."

Both twins had stopped what they were doing and looked at the two of them with something akin to reverence.

"You mean you _know_ Padfoot?" One asked.

Harry nodded. "Padfoot is my Godfather, Sirius Black. My father was one as well, not sure which one. The other two are someone named Remus, and I'm assuming Peter Pettigrew was Wormtail, since that can only describe a rat."

"Augh, please don't remind us of that." One looked sickened.

Two turned the map to show Harry and Hermione the courtyard in front of the castle, where they stood. The map listed each of their names - Fred Weasley was Twin number One, George was number Two, and right next to them were little banners with 'Harry Potter' and 'Hermione Potter' written on them.

"We've known since start of term." George told them. "We've kept your secret and will continue to do so. It's safe with us."

"Congratulations on your union as well, by the by." Fred smiled. "We wrote to Dad yesterday about what a prat Ronald was being, but apparently that was too late. Sorry about that."

"Dad will probably want to set a meeting with you to make sure you aren't about to turn a lethal gaze on the Weasley clan."

"I've no quarrel with either of you, nor any of your family I've not met." Harry said. "In fact, this whole thing here could have been avoided. Some bastard implanted memories in your sister of she and I... us, doing... She thinks she's pregnant with my child, but I've never yet had sex, and was never alone with her, so that's not possible. I told Ron I thought it would be a good idea to get her to St. Mungo's to see if they can fix it. The only reason there was any duel at all was Ron called... well, he was exceedingly impolite to my wife."

" _That's_ a surprise." Fred said flatly.

"Sorry about that. Hopefully Dad decides to do something about him." George added.

"We'll try and keep him at least civil as much as possible." Fred sighed.

"No.” Hermione frowned, “It's really sweet that you'd accept responsibility for him, it shows you care, but you two have your own lives to live."

"We do appreciate the thought though." Harry added. "Also, you might want to try to catch Ron and Ginny. Her Obliviation was more sophisticated than any student could do, so if Ron takes her to the staff to try to get permission to go to the hospital..."

George folded the map up again immediately. "Mischief Managed." He told it.

"Thanks for that." Fred said as they both jogged toward the castle. "Catch you later!"

Hermione held his hand as they walked toward the castle.

"Would you think less of me if I killed him?" She asked softly, worry in her eyes.

He smiled at her. "Sink or swim, that's the way of things. The stupid die and the smart live on. A pig that attacks a Svurtr is called bacon."

She giggled at that. "That reminds me, we should get to bed early tonight. You have a date with another dragon in the morning."

"Just a meeting, not a date. Only you get dates." He pecked her cheek. "I need to ask Lammy to take those forms back to Kneescythe, and then write to Sirius. After that, I would love to cuddle you to sleep."

"That will give me enough time to shower before bed. Write quickly, I might not be able to resist cuddling for long." She pouted.

"I'll do my best, but you'll have to wait if I'm not done."

She glanced sidelong at him with a small smile. "No promises."

  
  


* * *

  
  


The afternoon was bright and chilly instead of grey and chilly as they walked from the castle to the tent pavilion on the border of the Forbidden Forest. Harry and Hermione followed Viktor, Fleur and Cedric to a large open-sided tent next to a carefully fire-proof expanse of space filled with naked rock. Several large stands had been erected on the far side of the fireproof rock pit from the pavilion, and they were full to capacity with students, Professors, dignitaries, and other people Harry couldn't identify.

There were several people milling about inside the open-sided tent, including a man with a large camera and a woman with a sheet of parchment that followed her while a floating quill scratched against it. The witch seemed to sneer politely as she asked Viktor questions, as though she were accustomed to insulting others to their faces with impunity.

"Any idea who the pinched woman with the parchment is?" He whispered to Hermione.

Hermione shook her head in reply. "Looks like a reporter though, especially if that's her cameraman." She whispered back.

Mister Ollivander entered the tent then, and shooed the reporter and her cameraman out of the tent. A Paunchy man with greased back, thinning hair, wearing a too-tight Quidditch jersey sauntered in as well.

"Great!" The jersey-clad man said expansively, "All the Champions are here!" He plastered a huge, sleazy grin onto his mug and made a beeline for Fleur. "Hi." He said smarmily. He stood far too close to her, and didn't bother to stop his eyes roaming up and down her body, undressing her as they went. His face flushed, and he started to breathe heavily. "I'm Ludo. I'm in charge of this Tournament. Welcome to Britain, beautiful."

Fleur turned a trifle green, and forced a smile onto her face. "En Francais?" She asked.

Ludo grinned ruefully and shook his head. "'Fraid I don't speak a word, luv. Sorry."

Fleur smiled genuinely at that, and in French, said "Oh thank Merlin for that. Please heave your ridiculous bulk somewhere else and stop feebly hitting on women who could be your granddaughter. I feel like your greasy hair - what's left of it - might fall on me at any moment and force me to run screaming for the showers. It's bad enough to see you desperately clinging to the faded tatters of a time when you still had dignity, I don't need your weak-minded drool staining my shoes as well."

Harry, Hermione, Viktor, and Cedric all began to laugh out loud as she finished. Ludo looked a little confused, but then started to chuckle as well without having a clue what he was laughing about.

"That's enough, Ludo. Out!" Mister Ollivander commanded. "It's time for the weighing of the wands, not the embarrassing of the officials."

Ludo reluctantly backed away and out of the tent, but never took his eyes from Fleur until he was out of sight.

"Let's start with you, Miss Delacour." Mister Ollivander said to Fleur, and then added in French "That was a trifle unkind my dear, if entirely deserved."

Fleur managed to blush slightly. "That is every day all day for me, Monsieur Ollivandeur. It is difficult to remember to be kind every time."

Mist Ollivander's face softened. "Yes, I rather imagine it is Miss Delacour." He assumed his businesslike demeanour again, and Harry saw the calculation return to his eyes. "Let's have a look at your wand, shall we?"

Fleur nodded and handed her wand to Mister Ollivander, whose eyes widened the moment he touched it.

"Rosewood!" He said with a smile, "Nine and a half inches, inflexible. With a core of..." He frowned.

"Veela hair." She supplied. "Ma Grand-mere."

Mister Ollivander examined her wand for a moment, turned it this way and that, and looked down its length.

"Rare." He said finally, "And lovely work. Thank you, Miss Delacour."

"Merci." She said as she took her wand back.

"Mister Krum?" Ollivander looked at Viktor, who casually withdrew his wand and handed it to the man.

"Hornbeam." Ollivander said as he took it. "Another rare wood. Ten and a quarter inches, quite rigid. Dragon heartstring - excuse me, Ukranian Ironbelly heartstring." Ollivander looked pointedly at Harry. Harry just smiled in return. "Gregorovitch, if I'm not mistaken. Very fine work."

Viktor nodded with a smile as he collected his wand from Ollivander. "I vas von of last to purchase from khim before khe died."

"Such a loss for us all." Mister Ollivander said sadly. "Mister Diggory, your wand next please."

Cedric handed his wand over, and Mister Ollivander didn't hesitate for a single second. "Ash, Twelve and a quarter inches, pleasantly springy. Unicorn hair." He handed it back to Cedric. "Still serving well, is it?"

"No problems yet." Cedric said with a grin.

"Excellent." Mister Ollivander smiled back to Cedric, then turned to Harry. "Which brings us to you, Mister MacFusty. An enigma from the moment I laid eyes on you. The only thing I am _not_ surprised about regarding you is that you've somehow managed to get tangled up in this tournament."

"Huh." Harry grunted sardonically. "Minding my own business, studying like a good student, then oh no, you have to now compete in this thing you're not allowed to compete in or you'll lose your magic. The security and responsibility at Hogwarts is seriously lacking." He handed Mister Ollivander his wand.

"Yew, ten inches, Black dragon heartstring, pliable. Only a few months old, but already I sense a certain satisfaction from it. Not giving you any trouble, is it?" Ollivander blithely rolled right over Harry's sarcasm.

Harry shook his head and accepted the wand back. "No, none at all."

"Good. If you should encounter any, you know where to find me." Mister Ollivander nodded, then stood. "That's the weighing of the wands done, now I believe Mister Bagman holds the next part of today's adventure." Mister Ollivander gestured for them all to step out into the sunlight where Ludo was waiting, holding a deep green drawstrung sack that moved on its own. Whatever was inside the bag bulged and jerked.

Hermione stayed behind in the shade of the tent as Viktor, Cedric, and Fleur, and Harry walked out to meet him.

"The Champions!" Bagman bellowed. His voice had been amplified by a _Sonorus_ spell, and he gestured to the four teens. The crowd in the stands roared and cheered and whistled. Bagman drank it all in, as though the cheering was for him.

He held the green sack out in front of him in both hands, and slowly pulled the top of the bag open. "Time to choose your dragons!" He said. "Just reach into the bag and draw forth your miniature dragon. Each one represents a real dragon that you will then contend with. Ladies first!" He held the open bag out to Fleur.

Fleur sent a worried look to Cedric, who slipped his hand into her free one as she reached into the bag.

"Number two! The Welsh Green dragon!" Bagman bellowed again as she brought out an adorable palm-sized green dragon with the number 2 painted on it's back. It prowled around her palm and belched a tiny matchflame before it curled into a ball like a cat and glared at them.

"Mister Krum?" Bagman held the bag out to him.

Krum didn't hesitate, he reached into the bag and drew out a sinuous, scarlet dragon with a number 3 painted on it that reared up on its hind legs and spat a tiny ball of flame at him.

"The Chinese Fireball!! Number three!" Bagman yelled.

Ludo offered the bag to Cedric next, and he pulled out a cute little pug-faced blue-grey dragon with the number 1 painted on it.

"Number one! Swedish Shortsnout for Champion Diggory!" Ludo shouted.

There was only one dragon left in the bag, and Ludo knew what it was, because when he offered Harry the bag, his face was filled with sympathy. Harry raised an eyebrow at him, but reached into the bag anyway. His little dragon was a spiky brown one, larger than the others, with the number 4 painted on it.

"MacFusty draws number four, The Hungarian Horntail!" Bagman yelled without waiting for Harry to show the little thing. He didn't mind though, he just wandered back to the pavilion while he smiled at the little dragon in his hand. He showed Hermione when he reached her.

"Horntails are supposedly the most dangerous of the four." She said softly. "I think it's adorable."

Harry grinned at her. "Yeah me too. I've never talked to a different tribe before, I can hardly wait. I don't think the real mother will be this cute of course."

"I wonder if Fawkes would be upset if we kept a few of these cuties in our room?" Hermione mused.

Bagman stood on the grass twenty feet toward the rocky area and addressed the crowd again with his still-amplified voice. "First up will be Champion Cedric Diggory! Your task, Champion Diggory, will be to retrieve the Golden Egg from the dragon's nest! Good luck!"

Hermione growled low in her throat.

"Yeah, I know!" Harry agreed. "It's like they're _trying_ to get everyone killed! What the Clutch!"

"I'm afraid you have to wait in the recovery tent, Mister MacFusty." Ludo's face peeked around the side of the tent. "Alone, as well. Only Champions allowed, I'm afraid your ladyfriend will have to watch from the stands like everyone else."

Hermione growled again and glared at the spot where Bagman's head had been.

Harry stepped into her and hugged her. "I don't want to be away from you either, but like Maisie says, just look at it a different way. I don't get to watch the others, but you do. That means at least one of us will be there to keep our friends from dying."

"I don't mind if Viktor dies. He looks at me hungrily when you're not aware." She still frowned.

Harry chuckled. "I know." He kissed her head. "I also know that if he tried anything you'd erase him from the world. I'd only get a chance to kill him if you didn't. Don't get me wrong, Hermione - I'm not happy about it, but hopefully Viktor isn't as dumb as he seems and knows what will happen if he tries anything."

She smiled at him then. "The whole school knows what you did to Weasley, so maybe. I still don't like the looks though."

"Imagine how Daphne feels, she's been dealing with those looks for years, from just about every boy."

She quirked one corner of her mouth. "I hadn't thought about that, honestly. I suppose it's no wonder she wears that blank mask." She kissed him. "I'll make sure nobody dies. Stay safe, I have plans for you. Go on." She turned him by the shoulders and smacked his bum.

Harry laughed and blew her a kiss as he walked away. "See you in a bit." He smiled back at her as he left the tent.

Fleur paced back and forth in the recovery tent when he entered. Viktor sat in a chair and practiced wand movement while he tried to remain calm. The inside of the tent was lit by a _lumos_ at the apex, so while it was dark from being closed on all sides, it wasn't so dark he couldn't see. The left side of the tent was dominated by a large bed the same as the ones in the Infirmary, and the opposite side had four chairs. The tent was large enough on the inside that Fleur still had room in the middle of it to pace a good twelve feet back and forth.

Harry walked up to Fleur and whispered to her in French. "Hermione is out there, she'll make sure nothing terrible happens to him or you or Viktor."

She looked up at him and nodded with relief on her face, but then frowned. "What about you?"

Harry smiled. "I'm not in any danger." He took a seat in one of the chairs. The sounds of dragon roars and whooshing gouts of flame reached their ears from outside.

Fleur frowned at him and sat in the chair next to him. Viktor also frowned at him and sat forward on his chair.

"Wat you mean you are not een any dangeur?" She asked.

Harry shrugged. "We're not allowed to talk about it. I'm going last, so you can just watch and see for yourself."

The crowd noise from outside the tent surged then in response to a dragon roar, and Bagman's amplified voice yelled "Ohh! Very narrow escape there!" Fleur sucked a breath in through her teeth and looked at the closed tent flap.

"He'll be alright. In a couple hours we can all sit around and laugh about it." Harry smiled reassuringly. More dragon roars sounded, followed by the deep thud of something slamming into rock.

"And he's done it!! Diggory has the egg!" Ludo yelled from outside. Madam Pomfrey entered their tent then, with an old-fashioned doctor's bag in one hand.

"Off to the side if you don't mind, they'll be bringing Mister Diggory in shortly." She said tersely. Her attitude made it perfectly clear what she thought about the entire tournament. She pulled a small table out of her bag and set it next to the recovery bed, then pulled several potion bottles out of her bag and set them up in rows on the table.

Cedric was helped into the tent by a wizard and a witch, both dressed in full suits of dragonhide. Cedric's Champion's robes were scorched black across his left shoulder, his pants were torn and blood was visible through the tear. He limped with help over to the bed and then his dragonhide-wearing helpers exited the tent without a word.

Cedric lay down on the bed and Madam Pomfrey started working on him immediately. Fleur stood at the foot of the bed to be near him without hindering his care. Pomfrey cast charms over his leg to cleanse the wound, then knit the muscle and skin back together, then handed him a blood-replenishing potion which he downed without complaint. Madam Pomfrey then turned and looked at Harry, Viktor and Fleur.

"Outside please, I'll need Mister Diggory to remove his clothing." Harry and Viktor both nodded and left the tent, but Fleur didn't accompany them. Harry could hear her talking to Madam Pomfrey, and she must have been convincing because she stayed in the tent.

Harry watched as the dragon handlers coaxed the Swedish Short-snout back toward the forest, followed closely by her egg-filled nest as it floated along behind her.

The Welsh Green was brought in a few minutes later and fastened with heavy chains and collar. Her nest gently settled to the ground, and she immediately covered it as she scanned for threats.

"The Welsh Green, witches and wizards!" Bagman's still-amplified voice rang out over the snorts and whuffs of the dragon as it settled. "Champion Delacour, if you please!"

It took a moment, but Fleur exited the tent and nodded to Harry and Viktor. "You can go back een." She said. Harry could see she trembled slightly, but tightened her grip on her wand and took a deep breath. Her jaw set, her brows dipped, and she strode forward determinedly.

Harry and Viktor entered the recovery tent again, and Cedric was - thankfully - fully clothed again, and sat in one of the chairs with a relieved grin.

Harry sat next to him and offered a hand to shake. Cedric took it with a smile.

"Congratulations." Harry said. "I'm quite interested how you managed it, but it can wait until later."

"Da. Kongratation." Viktor said. He sat on the other side of Harry and pulled his wand out to practice some more.

It was ten minutes of roaring, the rushing sound of flames, thunderous slamming, and Bagman's voice yelling inane comments. Finally, the roaring and sound of flames stopped and the crowd cheered wildly.

Fleur made it into the tent under her own power, though she also bore scorchmarks and walked gingerly, as she favored her left ankle.

Harry and Viktor stood immediately and left the tent before Madam Pomfrey could tell them to. They watched the dragon handlers soothe the dragon and take it away back to the forest, followed closely by its nest full of eggs. A different team of handlers brought a bright crimson dragon from out of the forest. It was long and sinuous and looked almost exactly like Viktor's miniature.

Harry turned to Viktor and held a hand out, and Viktor shook it. "Good luck." Harry said.

Viktor nodded tensely. "Zhank you for telling task is dragon. I khave time to train."

Harry nodded back. "I found out, so it was only fair."

Cedric poked his head out of the recovery tent then. "Safe to come back in." He said.

Fleur was seated happily in the chair Cedric had occupied when Harry entered, a satisfied smile on her face.

"Congratulations." Harry smiled at her.

"Merci." She smiled back.

The roaring and yelling started again then as Viktor began his attempt. Instead of the whooshing, rushing sound of flame gouts, there was the sound of a single sharp breath, almost like a truncated hiss, followed shortly by the low rumble of thunder.

Bagman's inane comments rang around the arena as well. Things like "Very daring!" and "Some nerve!" came out of him for just over five minutes before he declared "He's got the egg!"

Fleur reached out and put her hand on Harry's, her eyes concerned. "Are you scared?" She asked.

Harry grinned back at her. "Excited. I can't wait. You guys can come watch if you want, you're already finished."

"Well now I have to, I'm too curious." Cedric smiled at Fleur and offered a hand to help her up.

Harry exited the tent again as the handlers swarmed around the Chinese Fireball. He knew it wasn't his place to say anything, but it did hurt his heart to see the beautiful creature subjugated. Even so, it was responsible for its own fate. That was the way of things.

The Horntail brought from the forest was enormous, even larger than Mother, though not by much. She was angry and fought the handlers as they tried to wizardhandle her into place. The steel collar and chain the handlers controlled her with were also enormous. Unlike the rest of the dragons, the Horntail's nest and eggs had been floated into place before she was brought out, and once she saw it she made a beeline to defend it. A dozen of the handlers all reinforced the charm that held the chain to the naked bedrock, and then fled the area immediately.

"Champion MacFusty!" Ludo called as soon as the handlers were clear.

Harry walked up to the edge of the rocky space and stayed there. He scanned the crowd, and waved to Hermione as soon as he spotted her. She sat with Luna, Neville, Daphne, and a few of the younger Gryffindors in the Slytherin stands. Hermione, Luna, and Neville all waved back with a smile. Luna and Neville looked quite nervous, apparently Hermione hadn't told them he was just going to have a chat.

The Horntail, finally settled on her nest, breathed on the nearby rocks to provide warmth for her eggs. Harry took one step onto the bare rock and stayed there, as he knew that would be enough.

The Horntail's head snapped up to look at him. "Stay away from my nest, pinkskin!" She growled at him. She had a bit of an accent, not unlike Viktor's, but otherwise he understood her perfectly. A wide smile spread across his face and he bowed his head low.

"Greetings, Great Mother!" He hissed.

The Horntail roared in surprise and backed up a step. "It speaks!" She roared incredulously, "The pinkskin speaks!"

He supposed it was rather like having a sudden conversation with a kneazle.

"I am unlike the other pinkskins, Great Mother." He remained bowed low, it was rude to rise without first being recognized. "I am Hidden Colours of the Svurtr. I am a pinkskin, but I was raised Svurtr." He deliberately didn't mention Mother's name in case the Horntail took his being raised as a dragon poorly.

"Impossible!" She roared, "Speech cannot be taught!"

It couldn't? Harry filed that away for later study.

"I bear the blood of the Svurtr." He said. Would that make a difference?

"Ah, you are a Twiceborn then. I have only heard tales of such a thing. Rise, child of Svurtr. Langelet of the Sarkany greets you."

Harry stood then with a smile. "Thank you, Mother Langelet. It is an honour and a privilege to meet and speak with you."

Langelet actually _laughed_ at that. She shook her neck and let out small whuffs of flame from her nostrils. "You _are_ raised by the Svurtr, and they remember the old forms! My compliments to your Mother, Hidden Colours."

"She will be thrilled at your compliment, Mother Langelet. I visit her often. Tell me, are there any Svurtr in the Padurea Hoia?"

Langelet nodded. "There are a few. Not so many as the other tribes, but some. I am surprised you know of it."

"The pinkskins hoard information like the Svurtr hoard sleeping metal. They know a vast amount about almost everything, and understand only pieces of it. They are strange things."

Langelet laughed again. "You have the Svurtr gift for understatement!" She sat back and looked down at her nest full of eggs, then back at him. "A tell for a tell, Hidden Colours - Is my clutch in danger here?"

Harry shook his head. "Not if you remain vigilant. There are some pinkskins who would steal your eggs, but not when you are near them. Are you aware of the reason for you and your nest being here?"

Langelet shook her head.

"This is a contest for the pinkskins. We are meant to test our cunning and magic by pulling the false egg from your nest while you guard it."

"It is not very cunning to inform me of your plan, Hidden Colours. Why should I not burn you now then?"

Harry laughed. "Mother Langelet, my cunning is already proven." He waved his arm at the stands, "None of them know that I Speak, except my Mate."

Langelet laughed again as well. "And they expect you to risk your life against me! Cunning indeed! Which one is your Mate? She must be proud of you."

"I do my best to make her so." Harry approached Langelet - but not too close - so that she could smell him. He pointed to Hermione in the Slytherin stands and waved to her again. Langelet took a deep breath with her snout near Harry, and the crowd in the stands gasped. She shook her head then and blew a small gout of flame from her nostrils into the air.

"You smell like a pinkskin." She said.

"I _am_ a pinkskin as well as one of the Svurtr, Mother Langelet. It can't be helped."

She looked down at him with her nose close enough to shove him, and he raised his shoulders, palms upward.

"No, I suppose not." She conceded. She swung her head toward the crowd and took another deep breath, and caught his scent on Hermione immediately, then looked straight at her, raised her foreclaw and waved.

Hermione's face split into a huge grin and she waved back enthusiastically. Most of the heads in the stands turned to look at her.

"Would you allow us to visit you in the forest later?" Harry asked, "When all this pinkskin nonsense is over? My Mate would love to meet you."

"She can Speak as well?" Langelet turned to look at him.

"She can. She does not yet know the Forms, however, so I will apologize for her rudeness now. We have only just found each other, and she was raised as a Pinkskin."

Langelet cocked her head at him. "You are the most curious thing I have ever seen, Hidden Colours. I would enjoy speaking with you more."

Harry bowed again briefly. "Thank you, Mother Langelet. My Mate will be thrilled."

"It is my surprise and pleasure to speak politely in a strange and dangerous place." She lowered her head to her nest and took a sniff, then plucked the golden egg out of her nest between two talons. "This is the thing you are tasked with retrieving?" She asked, "It smells of the sea." She said, as she held it out to him.

Harry took it from her claw and bowed again. "I thank you, Mother Langelet, for your gracious conversation. I look forward to continuing our talk later."

"Watch out for the Yulong when you visit. She is very distraught at losing two of her eggs."

"We will. Until we meet again, Mother Langelet."

Langelet simply bowed her head for a second, and Harry walked out of the testing area.

"Uh, He's... He's got the egg... I guess." Bagman's extremely loud, disappointed voice echoed through the silence.

  
  



	10. Chapter 10

  
  


There was more of Ludo's loud stating of the obvious as a form of ceremony once the Task was finished. He then presented the results of the First Task to the crowd as though they couldn't read the points board themselves.

Harry, being the least endangered, most effective of the three, was naturally in last place. That was thanks largely to Karkaroff, who'd called him 'boring' and given him three out of ten. Madam Maxime gave him a full ten, though Dumbledore also gave him three and a smug grin, as though Harry somehow cared.

As a result, they only had two hours to talk with Langelet due to the staff from the Romanian Dragon Preserve – Padurea Hoia - and their preparations to transport the dragons back to where they lived. They managed to exchange a few words with each of the other dragons as well, but none of them was as intelligent or conversational as Langelet. The Chinese Fireball even less so, as she grieved for the two eggs she'd stepped on by accident.

It was dark as they made their way back to the castle, so Harry took the opportunity to show Hermione how to push her magic into her eyes.

"Oh this is _brilliant_!" She gasped. "I can see _everything_!" She looked around until her gaze came to rest on Harry. "You're so _beautiful_..." She could see him Resonating, like a faint coruscating rainbow beneath his skin that concentrated around his vividly green eyes.

Harry reached down and picked up a rock, transfigured it into a mirror, and handed it to her. "I think you are."

She looked into the mirror for a long moment as she used one finger to press against her skin and make ripples in the patterns under her skin. She looked from the mirror to him and back several times then. "Our patterns aren't the same, but the colours are."

Harry stepped close to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She could feel his Resonance vibrate through her as they slipped into Harmony, and their patterns in the mirror synchronized and grew more vivid.

"Apart, we're who we are. Your Resonance is your own, the way your magical signature is your own. Together..."

"Together we're greater than the sum of our parts." She finished quietly, as she tucked the mirror into her pocket. She turned into him and pulled his head down to hers. She kissed him tenderly and passionately for a long moment, and when she was done he tacked a tender one on the end.

She found his hand and they resumed their walk toward the castle. Harry thought she looked like there was something she wanted to tell him, but she didn't, so he shoved it to the back of his mind to ask her later. She looked disappointed to let go of her Resonance as her eyes shifted back to normal once they were inside the castle. The crowd in the Great Hall had dropped into buzzed whispers the moment they entered the room.

"Hey, where have you two been? Out for a soar again?" Neville asked when they sat at their usual spot in the Great Hall.

"Talking to the dragons. What's going on this time?" Harry asked. 

"The usual." Luna said sadly. "You're a Dark Wizard because you can talk to dragons, which means Hermione must be a Dark Witch because she can too."

"Yeah, only nobody else knows she can, so she's just Dark by association." Neville frowned. "Stupidness."

Luna suddenly grinned and clapped. "Yay! That means I'm a Dark Witch by association too! Grr!" She curled her hands into claws and bared her teeth in a grimace as she looked up the table and said "Grr! Fear my Dark Witchyness! Grr!"

Harry staggered back from the table, the back of his left hand on his forehead. "Aaugh! The Dark Witchyness is too strong!” He cried as he mimed being inexorably pulled against his will, “I can't fight it anymore! It's just..." He took a step toward Luna, "Too..." He took another step toward Luna, melodramatically fighting his own movement, "Adorable!" He swept her into a huge hug, lifted her off the bench and spun her around before he set her down again. Luna giggled.

Hermione clapped at the display, and was strangely echoed by the far end of the table. The Weasley twins were on their feet and they clapped as well.

"Encore! Encore!" One of them shouted.

"Dark Witchyness rules!" The other one agreed.

The applause was taken up by the Hufflepuff table, who started cheering as well, and the Ravenclaw table, where most of the Beauxbatons students who knew Luna personally laughed and clapped at the display.

Harry and Luna missed it while they took their bows, but at the head table Dumbledore's smug grin slowly drooped into a frown. He got up and left the Great Hall after he paused to whisper to Professor McGonagall.

By the time the meal was over the whispers of Dark wizardry were forgotten, but the whispers of Dark Witchyness remained, usually followed by laughter. When the meal had vanished and plates were empty, Professor McGonagall rose and moved to the lectern.

"Just one quick announcement before you all rush off." She began, "As is tradition during years when the TriWizard Tournament is taking place, Hogwarts will this year be hosting the Yule Ball on December twenty-fifth, to begin at six pm. Dinner and dancing, festivities conclude at eleven pm. The ball is restricted to those fourth year and above, unless invited by a student eligible to attend. That is all."

Professor McGonagall left the lectern then. Harry stood immediately, only to sink to one knee before Hermione.

"Would you do me the honour of accompanying me to the Yule Ball as my date?" His face held trepidation and hope as he said the words.

Thankfully, she smiled and nodded with something akin to relief written on her features, and she turned to stand and hug him. "Yes!"

Harry sighed into the warmth and comfort of her arms. "Thank you. I didn't want to assume." He whispered as he held her close.

"You could have, but I like that you didn't. Thank you." She kissed his neck and sent a shiver through him.

As they let go of each other, they could see students from all over the Great Hall making their ways to other tables to ask for dates. Fred and George split up and went to opposite sides of the table to ask Alicia and Angelina to be their dates, and both ladies graciously accepted. Cedric copied Harry and dropped to one knee in front of Fleur, and a line of girls formed in front of Viktor. He bowed to them and left the Great Hall.

"Didn't think I'd be starting a frenzy." Harry whispered to Hermione. "Must be because the most desirable witch in the school is already going with me. Everyone else is scrambling for their second choices."

Hermione shoved her shoulder into his chest playfully as a blush bloomed in her cheeks. "See you two at Study Group." She told Neville and Luna, then grabbed his hand and led him from the hall.

"Study group isn't for another hour yet." He noted.

"I know." She said perfunctorily. She had a look of grim determination on her face as she dragged him into the entry hall.

"Well I suppose we can grab our stuff and hang out at the libr-" He didn't even get to finish before Hermione jerked open a door and stuffed him through it. She pulled her wand out and locked and sealed the door behind them. Wherever they were, there was no light in the room, so Harry Resonated and pushed his magic into his eyes. He felt Hermione start to Resonate, and watched her eyes change as well. She looked around them, sizing up the space they were in.

It was a broom closet.

"Mmm. Yes, this will do." She purred, then looked him in the eyes. "No Resonating, no eye-changing. That's cheating."

"I don't know what game this is, but I like it." He smiled at her. "Alright, no cheating." He stopped Resonating and the room went back to darkness. He felt her stop Resonating a moment later, just before he felt her front press against his front and her arms snaked around his neck. She was deliciously soft against his chest, and he was very conscious what she pressed against him. His body reacted as it always did, and he tried to move his hips away from her to spare them the embarrassment, but she pushed against him until he was up against some low shelf and his hips wouldn't go back any further. She still crushed herself against him, up against his embarrassing hardness, and moaned into his mouth as she kissed him. It felt _so good_ to have her warmth against him. He unconsciously ground himself against her as fireworks exploded in his head.

He reached his hands around her waist and slowly slid them downward over the curves of her behind. She kissed him deeper, she opened her lips and flicked his lips with her tongue as if to demand his tongue come out to play. He gently squeezed the muscles of her behind at the same time he reached out to slide his tongue along hers. She groaned into his mouth again and ground herself against his erection, as though upset she could find no purchase with which to climb him. She pulled his head down to her as she wrapped her arms tighter around his neck. Her mouth opened all the way and their teeth clashed gently as their tongues explored each other's mouths. One of his hands slid upward, under her shirt and traced a line up her spine to her bra strap. She shivered all over and sucked on each of his lips individually, then his tongue. She nibbled his lips as well and ground herself against him as he kneaded her behind.

He left her behind alone then, and she made a disappointed noise, until he pulled her shirt out of her skirt and wrapped his hands around her naked ribs. She gasped and growled in her throat at the new sensation as his hands explored her bare skin from her spine to her navel. He felt her arms move from his neck, her hands slid down his shoulders and arms to his ribs as she pulled his shirt out of his pants. Her hands went up his shirt and caressed his bare chest and sides. She grasped his behind and pulled his hips into her as she kissed him and ground her warm softness against him. One of her hands flitted between their bodies and started to glide up and down his erection.

He became aware too late that it had begun to feel _too_ good, and he recognized the point of no return as he flew past it. He reached up to grab her shoulders, but it only excited her more and she groaned as she pushed against him.

"Hermio-" He tried to say something, to let her know, but it was too late. White-hot pleasure surged through his brain and stiffened his body as he was helpless but to thrust against her while he groaned.

She must have felt the change in him - or maybe he'd bitten her lip as he bit his own, either way she released her hold on him.

"Was that... " She panted, "Did you... That was _amazing_." She whispered. "No more broom closets. Next time I want to see that."

Harry finally relaxed as the spasm ended and he kissed her forehead. "You are amazing. You feel _so good_ I can't even begin to say."

"So do you." She relaxed against him, and touched the rapidly softening front of his pants. He heard her sniff. "This is your..."

"Sorry. I need to... I should go change. I couldn't... sorry." He said softly, embarrassment stealing most of his voice. It was a good thing it was dark and she couldn't see how red his face was.

" _Brilliant_." She whispered, almost to herself. She pulled his head down to kiss him again, this time softly, her lips filled with tenderness and closeness. Harry held her face and returned it in kind, and hoped she could feel how completely awestruck she made him feel.

"I have to go change, I'll meet you at Study Group?" He asked her softly.

He could almost feel her pout. "Alright. I'd rather skip it and do this again, but I suppose we did make a commitment."

He pulled his wand out and Disillusioned himself. "Ready?" He asked her. He could hear her tuck her shirt back in and arrange her skirt.

"Ready." She said.

Harry opened the door and was gratified to see her face was very nearly as red as his felt. She took a couple of deep breaths, and headed off to Study Group.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Kreacher popped into the room, eyes wide and mouth open. He didn't even frown or sneer or make a snide comment.

"M - master..." The old elf stammered, "Pretty elf..."

Another elf popped into the room next to Kreacher almost silently. It was easily the tallest elf he'd ever seen, and her ears were straight and flat against her head.

"Lord Black, a pleasure to meet you again." The elf said.

"I'm sorry, have we met?" He'd definitely remember it if they had, the elf was unique.

The elf smiled at him and bowed slightly. "Yes, Lord Black. I did not look like this at the time. Missus Hermione accepted me into her family and this is the result."

"Oh! You're pretty elf! Welcome, welcome! I have to say that is a hell of a change, I've never seen an elf like you are now. What can we do for you?"

"I appreciate the nickname, Lord Black. I was instructed not to give names last time, but that is not the case anymore. My name is Lammy. I have a letter for you from Mister Harry." She gestured and a sealed letter simply appeared in his lap.

He picked up the letter like it was fragile and precious and held it to his chest. For a moment, he forgot she was there.

"Uh, thank you. Lammy. Please thank Harry for me, I'll write back shortly."

Lammy nodded once. "Just call for me, I will deliver your letter. Kreacher would not be able to."

He smiled at her. What a wonderful elf. "My thanks, Lammy."

"You're welcome." Lammy said, and vanished with a very faint pop.

"Lammy..." Kreacher said reverently as he ambled out of the room.

Sirius opened the letter and read hungrily.

**Dear Sirius,**

**Sorry this has taken so long. After we met things kind of got busy and I sort of forgot everything else for a bit. Let's see... Oh yeah! I went and told Neville when we got back to the castle after leaving you in Hogsmeade, and he was over the moon. He keeps calling me 'little brother' now, which is great. It's like being with Darcy and Argie again. It's weird how things you put up with in one environment you start to miss in another.**

**After that, on Halloween, they announced the champions for the Triwizard Tournament. Three students (who had to be** _**of age** _ **, according to the Ministry) were chosen - and then my name came out of the Goblet of Fire as well. So there are four champions this time. I didn't put my name in, nor did I ask anyone else to do it for me, yet my name came out all the same. Hermione said it was a trap, and she wasn't wrong. I was quite put out by that, as were both of the other schools and the other - legitimate - champions.**

**I thought that being forced to compete in a tournament that was only for of age students might be the Ministry tacitly admitting that I'm of age, so I wrote to my accounts manager at Gringott's - Kneescythe is his name - to ask if there was any way to have that legitimized. He wrote back with the forms, and I filled them out, but he says I'll need someone to file them at the Ministry before it's official. Could I impose upon you to do that? If not, that's okay too, I can do it over Christmas break. Hermione and I have to go there anyway to register and get our Apparation licenses. I know we're not supposed to start learning that until seventh year, but we're working our way through 6th and 7th year in our spare time because otherwise school would be boring.**

**Speaking on not being bored at school, we also now have a white phoenix as part of the family. Lammy popped in to our room one day holding a dead, frozen phoenix - Fawkes, Dumbledore's familiar - so Hermione did some quick research on them and found that they come back to life after they burn themselves, so we took it to a courtyard and breathed fire on it, and thankfully that worked, there was a baby Fawkes alive in the ashes, but he'd turned white with blueygreen accents instead of red and orange. Have you ever heard of a white phoenix? We couldn't find any references to any.**

**That was the same day Lammy changed too. Hermione was very anti-house elves before that because she thought they were kept as slaves, but Lammy managed to convince her that wasn't the case, so once Hermione agreed, we bound Lammy and then she changed... Well, you'll see it. Honestly between you and me I'm really scared I've done serious harm to both Fawkes and Lammy and I hope they're alright. They don't seem to be hurting, I mean they're both happy and healthy, so... I dunno??**

**After that, three weeks after I think? We had our Defense Professor go mental and teach a class on the Unforgivables, and he cast all three of them in the classroom! I may just be a bumpkin from the Hebrides, but even I know you can't do that. I got Hermione to call Susan's aunt Amelia Bones to the school, and she arrested him, and then his face started bubbling and he turned into someone else! He wasn't Alastor Moody at all, he was someone named Barty Crouch Junior, and he was a Death Eater! Too many coincidences if you ask me. Hermione agrees, we think that someone or a group of someones is aiming to do me ill, so we're being extremely cautious. Lammy checks all our food and drink as well, as there have been potions and things in it.**

**In addition to that, someone altered the memories of the youngest Weasley - a girl by the name of Jenny. Whoever it was changed her memories to include me getting her pregnant in a broom closet. Her older brother Ronald then challenged me to a duel during breakfast. As Jenny is thirteen, I didn't hold it against him, I'd have done the same thing. Two other Weasleys though - twins named George and Fred - are decent blokes. They have your Marauder's map and have known my real name from the time I started. They'd love to meet you, by the way. Fred and George think their dad will want to have a meeting with me as Heads of House over Christmas, so if you're free could I ask you to come along? I don't exactly know what I'm doing, I won't even pick up my Lord's ring until the 19th when we get off the train.**

**Last week Hermione and I were out flying and we found dragons in the forbidden forest, along with an army of handlers, and sure enough that's what our first task of the tournament was. We had to get a golden egg from the nest of a mother dragon. Thankfully everyone was successful and mostly unscathed. I had a great conversation with mine. She was a Horntail named Langelet, and she was surprised and happy to make a new friend instead of facing a threat to her nest. That was yesterday. Today they announced the Yule Ball, and I asked Hermione to be my date. If you're free the week before Christmas, could I impose on you for some advice on what to wear? I'm hearing that formal robes are expected, but as for what looks good? What's stylish? I'm an absolute spanner.**

**After Hermione and I visit Gringott's on the 19th we'll know better then what's going on, but I also intend to have you to dinner sometime over Christmas if you're alright with that. I have to take Hermione to visit Mother and the MacFustys, so it'll probably be the 27th or so. As I said, when I know more I'll send a proper invitation.**

**Thanks for any help you can offer, hope you're well,**

**-Harry.**

Help! The lad wanted his help! And Christmas! A giggle leapt out of him before he could keep it down. He didn't remember standing, but he was out of his chair, and he raced down the stairs to the front hall.

"I'm going out for a bit, darling, don't wait up!" He called into the house before he closed the door behind him. Another chuckle escaped him just before he Apparated to Gringott's.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"I warned you, Albus."

"Yes, Phineus, I'm aware, thank you."

"How is the Greater Good of Wizarding Britain served by you weakening yourself?"

"It's temporary. I have a plan to get the wand back."

"Fawkes isn't temporary, Albus. You killed the ignorant thing and destroyed your own binding ritual. It was an annoying chicken, but it did provide you a good deal of power."

Dumbledore sighed. Of course Phineus was right, and he'd practically cut his left arm off with just a single childish bout of anger. Reduced his own power and given up an emergency escape route as well. He should have stuck his face in his memories of how damnably difficult it was to bind the bloody bird in the first place. That would have calmed him down.

"Do you have a point Phineus, or are you just saying 'I told you so' to be smug?"

"Of course there's a _point_ , Albus. To whom do you think you are speaking? The _point_ is that circumstances are spiraling out of _control_. What is your plan to bring the boy to heel?"

"I need more information, Phineus. I _need_ it. I don't know what the boy is _capable_ of yet. I had nothing to do with his childhood, so he could even be a well-adjusted Alpha for all I know. He grows closer to the dirt-vein by the day, and I thought that would put him in the bag immediately. I've had the Elves dose both of them with a variety of potions on a daily basis, and neither of them exhibit any signs they've had any effect at all. The only thing I have left at the moment is threatening the girl with expulsion, magic binding and wand-snapping to provoke him into pulling the wand so I can take it from him."

"Hm. Both tactically sound." Phineus replied, and stayed silent for a time. "Are you sure the boy uses the wand? Carries it with him?"

"No." Dumbledore grumbled. "It's a calculated risk."

"Well, you know you can't Legilimens the little shit. At least you always have the last-ditch option of Obliviating the bollocks off him and making him a pliable little sacrifice." Phineus offered helpfully.

"A fair point. I'm certain he and the filth-blood will be spending Christmas together. When they return I think the time will be ripe to confront them. If nothing comes of it, she'll be dead by March in any case. I'll have to Obliviate the parents, not that they seem to care what happens to her in the first place." Dumbledore smiled. Uncaring parents were his favourite kind.

"Fucking muggles. Just kill them and prevent any further contamination." Phineus frowned.

"Too messy. Too much work. I don't have the bird to keep me young anymore."

"I suppose." Phineus sighed. "How are you going to kill the shit-vein? I know you said the Second Task, but how exactly?" He leaned forward inside his frame.

Dumbledore smiled as he sat back in his chair. "You'll enjoy this. The Champions are to have their most precious possession taken the night before - not a thing, mind you, but the person they'll miss the most. This person will be placed under stasis charm and tied under the surface of the black lake. For the others, it will function perfectly. I'm casting it myself, after all. Dirt-vein's will wear off after an hour and our little lamb will desperately rescue a corpse."

"Yes... That will definitely induce enough adolescent emotion to isolate him some. Take care to keep his friends away from him after, you don't want them lifting his spirits - and you might want to make yourself scarce. From what you've told me, he's no simpleton. He'll come looking for you."

"I just happen to have inescapable ICW business for two weeks following the Second Task." Dumbledore steepled his fingers with a self-satisfied smile.

"Of course you do." Phineus chuckled. "And that will leave the lamb to stew in his own juices. With luck he'll push his friends away himself. Nicely done."

"And, as you say, if worse becomes worst, then I'll simply ambush the brat and and wipe his mind except for a driving desire to find and destroy Tom Riddle."

"For the Greater Good." Phineus intoned with a nod.

"For the Greater Good." Dumbledore agreed.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Harry leaned over and kissed Hermione softly on her cheek, her temple, her nose, her chin, and then her lips as she woke and turned to face him.

"Good morning," She smiled dreamily at him, then snuggled under his neck like a cat burrowing under a blanket.

He kissed the other side of her face and neck and made her giggle. She covered her neck with her arm, but it was too late. She was already awake.

"Next week we get to stay in bed as long as we want." He said in a low rumble as she turned on her back and looked up at him.

"Mmmm." She hummed contentedly and threw her arm over his head and kissed him soundly. "Alright, I'm up." She sighed finally. "That is a lovely way to wake, my Chocolate Sweetheart."

Harry grinned and rumbled in his chest, then buried his nose in her neck for more kisses. "Chocolate Sweetheart." He gave her one last kiss on the neck and then sat up.

Fawkes trilled from his perch near the dresser as if to say good morning, and they both left the bed to give him some attention. They stroked his feathers while he puffed up his chest and butted their hands with his head.

"Good morning you too, Fawkes." Hermione smiled.

"How was your night? Get enough to eat?" Harry asked him. Fawkes opened his wings and sang fiercely, which made them both smile. "Good, glad you're doing well. If you need anything, just say so, right?"

Fawkes chirped, and they felt gradients of emotions that emanated from the bird. Happiness, friendship, pride, and contentment.

Harry dressed quickly and nipped to the kitchens while Hermione was in the shower, as was their usual routine. He showered while she got dressed and fussed with her hair, and because he was faster in the shower than she was, they ate breakfast together after he was dressed.

They hadn't even reached the second floor on their way to first period Transfiguration when Fred and George intercepted them in the hall.

"Do mine eyes deceive me, Gred? Or is the sun now hiding from the darkest witch and wizard ever to walk the land?"

"No, I believe you may be correct, Forge - either that or we're in Scotland. Much the same thing though, really."

"Morning gents." Harry cut through the banter. "What can we do for you?"

"Ah, yer Dark Majesties, it's what _we_ can do for _you_." Gred said.

Forge handed Harry a letter with DUNCAN MACFUSTY written on the front. "Dear old dad sent that this morning with instructions to deliver so here we are, ever the dutiful scions."

"Oh." Harry smiled. "Thanks for that then." He took the letter and pocketed it for later. "How is your sister?"

"Ginny's better now," Gred said, "Doesn't think she's preggers anymore."

"I was less concerned with her memories than her health, actually. She wasn't...?"

"Oh, no." Forge grinned. "No, she's alright. It was just her memories. Healer gave her a potion to help with the discombobulation after it was removed and she was right as rain by dinner. A little sad it wasn't true, completely embarrassed by the whole thing of course, but she'll be fine."

"Good, I'm glad. Thanks for that too." Harry smiled.

"Were they able to discover who did it to her?" Hermione asked.

Both twins shook their heads.

"No leads, unfortunately." Gred said.

"Part of the alteration was devoted to erasing who had done it, so there's no possibility." Forge explained.

"That's what the layers were for!" Hermione grimaced. "I should have guessed."

"Thank you for even bothering to scan her, Dark Mistress. Nobody else would have, especially not with stupid spouting his mouth off." Gred said.

"Far as we're concerned we owe you for that, so if there's anything we can do for you, just say the word." Forge nodded.

"Knock off the Dark Majesty nonsense and we'll call it even." Hermione frowned.

"Umm... does that include Luna too?" Gred asked.

"That's up to Luna." Hermione replied.

"Okay good. Dark Witchyness is too cute." Forge grinned.

"Thanks again, you two. See you at Study Group." Gred smiled and started back the way they'd come.

"See you later, guys." Harry and Hermione both waved as the twins strode back down the hall.

"Is it just me, or is it weird how those two are normal and their brother only two years younger is a completely lazy lackwit?"

"No, no - it's weird. The twins have a little too much personality for my taste, but you can't deny they study hard and learn. Ronald would have had to see that growing up as well, so it makes no sense at all." Hermione shrugged. "Still want to kill him, by the way."

"Me too. Every time I think about that vacant-eyed arsewipe and what he's done and said to you, I want to push his face out the other side of his skull."

"Excellent visual." Hermione kissed his cheek. "May I read your letter?"

"Of course." Harry handed it to her. "The only secrets I have from you are things like your birthday plans or anything I want to surprise you with. You... are alright with that, aren't you?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" She frowned.

Harry shrugged. "I've never shared my life with anyone before. I don't know if it might be too much too soon for you, or too little too slowly. If we don't ask, we won't know, and that might lead to fights. I don't want to fight with you, it's supposed to be me and you against everyone else, isn't it?"

Hermione reached out to cup his cheek and looked into his eyes. "No, you're absolutely right. I'm sorry, Dunc. I'll try to tell you more what I'm thinking and feeling and try to stop living in my own head so much. It _is_ me and you against everyone else. I hope you're... comfortable with me?"

Harry smiled into her eyes. "Even with broom closet embarrassment."

Hermione's face went red almost immediately.

"You are _so cute_ when you blush." He whispered to her as he kissed her. "Never stop."

Hermione cleared her throat and started to walk down the hall toward class as she pulled the letter open. By the time they reached the classroom, her blush had dwindled to a pleasant pink across her cheekbones.

She handed him the letter back as they took their seats.

"Is it bad?" He asked.

She shook her head and made her curls bounce. "Just... strange. Like whatever the twins told their father made him afraid for the wellbeing of his family."

"Oh. I suppose I did sort of threaten them with a blood feud at the start of the year."

"You did what?!" Hermione said in a loud whisper.

"I was angry. That was that first night, right after Ronald -"

"Oh. Yes, I imagine that might've made an impression." She conceded.

"The words 'ball of white fire' might have been used." Harry said sheepishly.

"You didn't!" She whispered.

"Shiteater had just _boasted_ about what he'd done to you. You bet your beautiful arse I did."

She pulled him down and whispered in his ear, "That's another snog you're getting tonight. Read your letter." Then she let him go and busied herself taking out her textbook and notes and quill and parchment.

Harry just smiled at her and opened the letter.

**Head of House Weasley**

**To**

**Head of House MacFusty**

**I greet you in the spirit of peace, in pursuit of peace despite recent events that have been the opposite of peaceful.**

**My twin sons have informed me just this moment of the events which threaten the peace between our two Houses, and I seek to meet with you under a flag of Truce so that we may discuss how to ensure peace between us.**

**I propose to meet December twenty-eighth at one pm within one of the conference rooms at Gringott's. As Neutral Territory, Gringott's will not allow the presence of wands within the conference rooms, so that we may both be at ease.**

**Awaiting your reply,**

**Arthur, Head of House Weasley**

Harry thought that worked out rather well, actually. He and Hermione would have time to relax after the Yule Ball, visit Mother and MacFustys, and have dinner with Sirius before they sat down to House business. It would also give him time to research what was expected of a Head of House and how he ought to behave.

He started to jot down a tentative timeline for the holidays, but left off when Professor McGonagall entered the room and class began.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"So, I figure the nineteenth is definitely spoken for, with the train ride and then meetings at Gringott's and then maybe finding a room at the Leaky or wherever if there aren't any Potter properties." Harry said.

"That seems sound. If there are, we could use the rest of that day to get acquainted with the place in any case. Explore the grounds and familiarize ourselves with the wards and such. Same thing goes if we're in a hotel, we could explore the area and maybe do a little shopping." Hermione agreed.

Harry nodded and noted down her suggestion about exploring. "Then the twentieth I thought we could hit the Ministry in the morning and test for our Apparation licenses. That gets it out of the way and lets us move around faster for the rest of the holidays."

"Good thinking."

"I don't have anything for the twenty-first or twenty second, they're still open, but Kneescythe might want us at Gringott's again. I thought the twenty-third you might want to get together with Luna and go to Diagon or Harrod's or wherever you want to go for dresses for the ball. I thought I might ask Nev if he wants to come along while I go looking for something nice so I don't look stupid next to you."

"That sounds good as well. I'm still very unhappy with spending your money -"

"It's _our_ money, Hermione. We're _married_ , remember?"

She bit her lip and frowned, but nodded.

"Besides, it's not like you aren't rich as well. You could probably go buy yourself a mansion with the 'pretty things' Lammy gave you for your birthday."

She seemed to relax somewhat then. "Okay, that's a fair point."

Harry nodded, and noted the whole of the twenty-third for shopping and friends. "The twenty-fourth we're invited to dinner at the MacFusty's, but I thought we could spare an hour or so before that to visit Mother if you're alright with that?"

Hermione shot off the loveseat and squeezed him in a hug. "I can really meet Mother?"

"Of course. Mother's blood is in both of us now. Besides, she'll be the only person who would have answers to the questions you might have about the new you. I don't know enough about..." He looked at the floor and blushed slightly, "Girl things..."

"Oh. Yes, I did have a couple of questions, actually." Hermione flopped back on the loveseat.

"Good, so that's the twenty-fourth then. Christmas day will be just us, presents and breakfast and warm snuggles and good stuff. If you want to meet up with Luna and the three of you can do your hair or whatever you wanted to do, there's plenty of time for that before we Apparate to Hogwarts for the Ball."

"That would be nice. I'm sure Luna would appreciate it. I have you and Lammy, but Luna only has her father and I'm fairly certain he's not a hairstylist."

"I'm not a hairstylist either, I just have mean older sisters." Harry grinned.

"Either way, I love it when you french braid my hair. Surprised the life out of me, that did." Hermione smiled back.

Harry's cheeks tinted a little red. "I like how it looks when you take it out."

Hermione took silent note of that for later.

Harry cleared his throat. "Anyway, after the Yule Ball we'll probably want to relax and sleep in on the twenty-sixth, and then maybe visit your parents, unless you think we should do that earlier on the twenty-fourth?"

Hermione's smile fell, but not quite into a frown. "No, the twenty-sixth would be fine. I should probably write them tonight and let them know I won't be spending the holidays with them. In any case, we may not stay long on the twenty-sixth depending on their attitudes. You might want to kill them before too long."

"Oh?" Harry raised his eyebrows.

"They aren't abusive like Ronald, but I learned before I ever got to Hogwarts that my parents' idea of parenting is to 'encourage me to be a strong, independent person' by basically ignoring my existence."

"Yes, I can see that leading to some... friction." Harry scowled.

"Thank you for getting angry on my behalf Harry." Hermione soothed, "But it's best if you just leave them to me. Get angry if you have to, but I'll handle them. They've done such a great job 'parenting' that I have no qualms about leaving there and never going back."

Harry nodded to her. "Understood. I'll do my best." He tried to reassure her with a smile. "Twenty-seventh I thought we could have dinner with Sirius, maybe get to know him a little more. I've asked for his - well, you read the letter."

She smiled at him. "We'll see what kind of person he is in a social environment and whether he really cares? That's what you were going to say?"

Harry grinned at her. "I love your brain."

"I love yours." She blew a kiss at him. "Who else would make a schedule for the holidays with colour coded events?"

"You." Harry replied.

"Must be why I love that you are." She stuck her tongue out at him and then grinned.

"Twenty-eighth at one we have the meeting with Weasleys, and maybe Sirius if he wants to come. Twenty-ninth and thirtieth are also free, and then Nev invited us to New Year's party at his Gran's place. That leaves the first for sleeping in and cuddling before the train, and then we're back here the second. Although, at that point if we have our licenses, we won't need to be on the train anymore."

"It's good." Hermione got off the loveseat and walked over to the table where Harry was, and sat in his lap. She picked up a coloured pencil that hadn't been used in the schedule, and coloured in the whole of the schedule that was left free, then in the legend assigned that colour to 'snogging'.

"There." She said proudly. "Now it's perfect."

Harry added a box to the schedule that said "Now" and coloured that in the snogging colour. "Looks like it's that time already." He pointed to the legend.

"Well, we can't go against the schedule, who knows what we could throw off in the future?" Hermione adjusted her seat on his lap to straddle him and pressed her lips against his.

Harry deepened their kiss and touched her bare skin at the waistband of her jeans. She moaned into his mouth... and then Fawkes began to sing of love in overblown, grandiose tones.

Hermione broke the kiss and scowled at the bird.

"Fawkes, come on, man!" Harry complained.

Fawkes sang laughter in pure notes that echoed around the room.

They couldn't help but chuckle as well, and got up to give the bird some attention. They had just slid one hand into the back pocket of each other's jeans when Lammy popped in.

"Sorry to interrupt..." Lammy said.

"You're not interrupting, Lammy. Fawkes already did that." Hermione pouted at the chuckling bird.

"Besides, if Chuckles over here gets to demand some love, so do you." Harry held Hermione's hand and they both scooped Lammy up into a group hug.

"Yay!" Lammy hugged them back, "Hugs are the best!" Fawkes, not to be outdone, perched on Harry's shoulder and enfolded all of them in his wings.

"Yay for family hugs." Hermione said a trifle wistfully.

"Plenty more where these came from. I think this is the beginning of a great family." Harry smiled at her lovingly.

Fawkes sang his agreement and flew back to his perch so Harry and Hermione could set Lammy down again.

"Mister Sirius sent a letter for you." Lammy said with a huge grin and pointed to the table where the letter lay.

"Thanks, Lammy." Harry gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and went to pick up the letter.

**Dear Duncan,**

**Congratulations, kiddo! You're no longer a kiddo. Kneescythe is quite the manager, he had everything all laid out when I got there. He only needed someone to go file things at the Ministry, so I did that nice and late, just as the department was closing. Slipped your paperwork in when they couldn't be bothered to look at it twice, and just like that you're an adult.**

**I will admit that part of me wonders if it's the right thing to do, declaring you an adult at fourteen. Then I remember what you've been through and the fact that you are very clearly capable and responsible. Honestly, probably a great deal moreso than your father or me at your age. Merlin, probably moreso than your father and me when we were seventeen if I'm being really honest.**

**I've started poking around the Ministry regarding your troubles with the Triwizard, but nothing has come up yet. I hesitate to say it, but while I'm being honest (it doesn't happen much, really!) there's an undercurrent to your letter that whispers Dumbledore at me, and I don't like it. Especially the fact that his phoenix mysteriously froze to death. The fact that Fawkes hasn't simply gone back to Dumbledore disturbs me more than I can say. I don't want to pry any more than you're willing to let me, but I'd love to talk about it over Christmas.**

**Speaking of which, I would be delighted to help you choose something snazzy to impress Hurmionee? Hermayoni? with. And give whatever help and advice I can in your meeting with Arthur, if what the twins say comes to pass. Your father and I fought alongside Arthur and Molly (The Weasleys) in the first war against Voldemort. They were solid. I haven't thought about that old map in years! It took us a long time to get that finished. Those were happier days.**

**Still can't believe you just waltzed up to a Horntail and had a pleasant conversation. I would have loved to see the looks on everyone's faces! Ha!**

**Looking forward to talking more once you're settled for the holidays. Let me know where you're staying , I might know more about the place than you!**

**Stay safe,**

**Sirius.**

Harry picked Hermione up in a huge hug and spun her around, then kissed her exuberantly when he dropped her back on her feet.

"Good news?" She asked sardonically. Harry just handed her the letter.

"Does this mean we're both adults now?" She asked when she'd finished.

Harry grinned. "I'm pretty sure we were both adults already because it's illegal for minors to marry anyone, including an adult. Magic recognized us as married though, so I'm pretty sure we already were, but yeah. Registered at the Ministry now, so we both definitely are and nobody can say anything."

Hermione grinned and touched her nose to his as she tousled his hair. "That will make things easier -" She stopped and her face fell into a frown. She put the tip of her thumb in her mouth and worried at it with her teeth.

"What is it?" Harry asked, instantly concerned.

"We can't leave Britain now. We'll have to stay unless we go to Norway or something where the age of majority is lower. We're adults here because of the laws, but if we go to France or Germany or somewhere we won't be. We'd be at the mercy of _in loco parentis_ again."

"Hmm. Let's research that when we go there on the twentieth. If we can get some kind of paperwork that says we're legally adults to take with us, that should suffice, shouldn't it? I mean, we're only going to be foreign students, it's not like we're moving there permanently. Even if we do decide to move there permanently, we can do that when we're of age. Right now it's just about escaping the Hogwarts shitshow."

Hermione stopped chewing her thumb again and brightened. "No, you're right, that should be the case. I was thinking permanently, but it is only about finishing school, unless we like it wherever we go enough to make it permanent."

"Would you rather live somewhere it was always warm or always cold?" Harry asked.

"Hm." Hermione looked at him, and flopped onto the loveseat again. "I've never thought about it. Nobody's ever asked me anything like that before." She smiled at him, and thought about it out loud. "I like the snow, but I hate the cold, but I don't get cold anymore thanks to you... I like the idea of us being in a warm, cozy chalet buried deep in the snow. At the same time though, I've had enough of grey and rain to last a lifetime, and would love to be able to just walk down a path from our house to the ocean. Somewhere there's sunshine all the time except during the occasional storm. Bright, clear turquoise water and white sand... I don't think I'd be able to answer that question until I - _we_ \- have lived at both places. What's your answer?"

"Oh I don't have an answer. I never even knew there were places like that until Argie showed me pictures. Farthest I've ever gone was London. I suppose my answer would have to be... wherever you are." He shrugged and smiled at her. "I think it would be kinda fun to go lots of places and see how we like them though. Even if we don't have a lot of money to work with, we can both fly, we can transfigure and build a house wherever we want. I can hunt -"

"I can fish!" Hermione said excitedly. "I read a couple of books on how to build fish traps and crab traps and things. If we're somewhere with clear water, I can just levitate the fish!" She bounced off the loveseat again and sat in his lap. "I don't know why it makes me so excited. Just the idea of you and me alone, no money, just hunting and living together..."

"Want to start this summer? I want to stop by the place where Langelet lives in Romania to look for Mother's mate, but it's a huge forest, so you and me could..."

"Yes!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. "That sounds brilliant."

"What do you think, Fawkes? Fancy a bit of travel this summer?" Harry asked over Hermione's hair.

Fawkes stretched his neck upward and spread his wings and sang of freedom and adventure.


	11. Chapter 11

They stepped out of the floo from King's Cross Station into the common room of the Leaky Cauldron and waved to the barman as they made their way to the entrance of Diagon Alley. Hermione slipped her hand into his while they waited for the wall to move out of the way. Harry flashed a smile at her but her return smile was too brief, a press of her lips together while her eyes were elsewhere even though they looked at him.

"What's wrong?" He asked her once they were in the alley and headed for Gringott's.

"Nothing."

Harry looked into her eyes, and she blushed faintly. Her face said she had understood what he'd said without words.

They continued toward the bank, still hand in hand. As they passed Fortescue's, Hermione stopped and pulled on his hand with 'stop and talk to me' pressure.

"I just..." She started, "It's... What if you're actually really rich and important?" She looked up at him with trepidation in her eyes. "I..." She blinked tears away, "I was really looking forward to just us, just our little family alone in the forest... at least for a little while." She finished in a small voice.

He kissed her forehead. "You think any kind of responsibility they dump on me - on _us_ \- in there is going to change that?"

"What if it does though? What if your parents were really important people and you have to accept the responsibility because others will abuse it if you don't? Don't give me that look either, we both know what your sense of honour is like."

Harry quirked one corner of his mouth and grimaced to acknowledge that she was right. He smiled back at her and sighed.

"Then I have the most brilliant witch in history to help me choose someone trustworthy to look after things while I'm away with her. Even if the responsibility belongs to me, I don't have the education to accomplish it properly. I'll have to learn to do that, but... if the cost of doing so is you, then it's too high. We'll figure something out. You're right, Hermione, I do suffer from wanting to do the right thing, but what's in that bank - even if it is a boatload of responsibility - it doesn't belong to me. It belonged to my parents. It belonged to the person I was _supposed_ to be. Not to _me_. If Britain is clamoring for who I was supposed to be, then someone - anyone - should have made bloody sure I didn't get raised by Mother."

Hermione nodded at that and breathed easier. "It just worried me when I thought of it on the train. I don't... I've seen other girls at school get too close to boys. They start to pin all their hopes on the boy and plan out their futures together, only to get dumped because of it. I don't want to be like that. We're still new, you and me - us, but It's wonderful and I don't want it to end. You've reassured me several times and I thank you for that, I genuinely do, but..."

"But you want something you can count on. Something that won't go away. I feel the same, Hermione. It has only been a few months, but I can't imagine a future without you. I don't want to. I'm just as afraid of losing you." He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. "No matter what happens in that bank Hermione, you will not stop being fascinating to me. Nothing will change my desire to wrap myself in you. Only you can stop that, and you won't. At least, I hope to Clutch you won't."

Hermione relaxed finally and squeezed him. "Good. Let's get this over with then and we can get back to wrapping." She pecked him on the lips and strode toward the bank. Harry hurried to catch up to her, and slipped his hand into hers.

The tellers recognized him when he entered the queue, and when he - and Hermione, a split second later - bowed to the teller in front of them, there was no trace of snark or disapproval.

"Good afternoon." The teller said. "Please follow Hackgrip, he'll take you to Manager Kneescythe."

"Thank you." Harry said, then pressed his lips together and did his best to raise his ears. The teller repeated the gesture, and then they followed Hackgrip to Kneescythe's office. Only after Hackgrip had gone and the office door closed did Kneescythe greet them.

"Lord and Lady Potter," He bowed, "Welcome, it is my pleasure to receive you."

"It is our pleasure to visit you again." Harry bowed as well, again followed by Hermione a split second later.

"Please, make yourselves comfortable." Kneescythe said, "Lady Potter, it is a particular pleasure to meet you finally. It is not often I meet someone chosen by magic itself. You are most welcome."

"Thank you, manager Kneescythe, it is a pleasure to finally meet you as well." Hermione smiled without showing teeth. "I don't mean to offend, but I am not at all accustomed to formality, so could we dispense with it and get to the good part?"

Kneescythe chuckled. "I would be delighted to, Lady Potter."

"It's Hermione, please. We might _be_ Lord and Lady now, but I don't think it will ever be comfortable for either of us."

Harry smiled at her and nodded. "Too true."

"Very well then." Kneescythe nodded. "Harry and Hermione. Where would you like to start today?"

"Could we start with the rings please?" Harry asked quickly.

Kneescythe gave Harry a knowing smile and took the ring box from his desk drawer to deposit it on the desk in front of them.

"That's lovely." Hermione whispered.

Harry made his Heir ring visible and pressed it to the indentation on the front of the box. There was a sharp click as the box unlocked, and Harry flipped the lid open. The Lord and Lady rings were there just as he'd seen them before, still gold and ruby. He slipped his Heir ring from his finger and placed it back into its spot in the box, then handed the Lord's ring to Hermione while he took the Lady's ring from the box.

"Just so you know, I want to give you a proper wedding when we don't have to hide anymore." He looked into her eyes.

"I don't need it, Harry. This is fine."

"It's fine while we have to hide. That will change." He said firmly.

"We might have more than ten people to invite by then." She smiled at him, and slipped the Lord's ring onto his left ring finger.

"And, you know... somewhere to hold it." He smiled back at her and slipped the Lady's ring onto her left ring finger.

Both rings, once in place, changed from gold to a bright white, reflective metal adorned with tiny scales, and the rubies lightened into Aquamarine.

"It's beautiful." Hermione sighed. She held her left hand up and admired her wedding ring in the light.

"And so appropriate. Fawkes is going to get a kick out of it." Harry smiled.

"Would you like the accounts ledger or assets ledger first?" Kneescythe asked as he put the ring box back where he'd retrieved it from.

"Assets, please." Harry replied. "Properties and homes would be in the assets one, right?"

Kneescythe nodded. "Correct." He handed Harry the Assets ledger.

"I'll look at the accounts then, since I have more experience dealing with accounting." Hermione said, and took the Accounts ledger from Kneescythe.

"More things your parents 'let you discover' on your own?" Harry asked with a sidelong glance at Hermione.

"Yes, but one of the things I didn't really mind, since controlling my own money meant being closer to getting away."

"I guess today's that day then." Harry grinned.

Hermione brightened. "I guess it is." She bent her head to the Accounts ledger. Harry ran his finger down the table of contents in the Assets ledger, and flipped to the properties section.

**Potter Glen, West Sussex: Complement 4 (Familial Seat)**

**Potter Cottage, Lancaster: Complement 1**

**Unnamed Cottage, Godric's Hollow, Somerset: Complement 0**

**Plage de Potter, Marseilles, France: Complement 2**

**Gaunt Residence, Little Hangleton. Complement: 0**

**Riddle House, Little Hangleton. Complement: 0**

"Well, we have a place to live, at any rate." Harry said. "

"And we won't be going hungry... ever." Hermione told him in a small voice.

"How bad is it?" He asked her.

"Millions." She said. "And growing."

Harry just stared at her.

"It will probably take some time to fully come to grips with your diversified holdings, but we have a great many years ahead of us for that. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate." Kneescythe told them.

"Uh." Harry said as he snapped out of his vision of sleeping atop a mountain of gold. "Right. Okay... Immediate concerns - what are the responsibilities that come with this? With the Lord and Lady rings?"

"Until you reach the age of twenty-one, very little. However, I would recommend taking the time between now and then to learn the ins and outs of the Wizengamot, as at twenty-one you will be expected to take up your seats on it." Kneescythe said.

"And if we don't?" Harry asked.

"Then you will forfeit your ability to affect change, unless you appoint a proxy you can trust. Even then, wizards attempt to bypass fair voting on a regular basis. If you don't appoint a proxy, then it's likely the Ministry will simply annex your seats and use them for their own purposes."

"Well, at least we have some time. What do you think? Not too terrible?" Harry looked at Hermione.

She shook her head. "Not too terrible. We'll be finished most of seventh year by the end of this one. With revision for O.W.L.s next year, we could easily study that in our spare time and be ready for it by the time we graduate in addition to studying for our first Mastery. It works out pretty well, actually."

"And gives us something to read and talk about while we're snowed in."

They grinned at each other.

"Uh, sorry Kneescythe." Harry snapped out of his grin. "I meant to ask if it's appropriate to show affection during business meetings? We wouldn't want to offend you."

Kneescythe chuckled. "In Goblin society, yes I would say it is somewhat inappropriate, but only insofar as it could be construed as weakness. After your previous display in this very office, I daresay that's not anything you should be worried about."

"And in Wizard society, I'd laugh at anyone calling my Harry weak. Right before I hexed them back to the stone age." Hermione affirmed.

"You could probably just slap them that far too. She's... like me." Harry explained to Kneescythe.

Kneescythe's eyes widened. "There are _two_ of you?!"

"I speak. I breathe. I fly." Hermione said with a smile at Harry.

"It is a great honour to make your acquaintance, Lady Potter. Forgive my lack of understanding." Kneescythe bowed to her.

"Still just Hermione, if you please." She said amicably.

"Thank you, Lady Hermione." Kneescythe re-seated himself.

"Which of these properties do you recommend?" Harry asked. "I mean, I'd choose this Potter Glen if there's nothing wrong with any of them."

"I would recommend Potter Glen. Potter Glen, Potter Cottage, and Plage de Potter are all viable properties. Your property at Godric's Hollow is both unlivable and somewhat appropriated by the Ministry of Magic. I would very much recommend against the Gaunt Residence and Riddle House." Kneescythe explained.

"Appropriated by the Ministry _how_?" Hermione frowned.

"It was turned into some sort of monument, I believe. It has been exposed to the elements for thirteen years, and as a result is quite unlivable."

"One more thing we'll have to research. I'm almost positive they can't just take your property like that." Hermione said.

"As long as we have one place to live, we can look into that later." He replied, then turned to Kneescythe. "What about these other two? Why not them?"

"The Gaunt Residence is nothing more than a tiny shack, and Riddle House is the subject of several liens. They were both already in disrepair when you won them."

"When I _won_ them? I don't remember winning any contest for two disrepaired properties." Harry frowned. 

Kneescythe pressed his lips and raised his ears. "They belonged to the wizard who called himself Lord Voldemort. They ceded to you when you destroyed him in nineteen eighty-one."

Harry looked at Hermione, both eyebrows raised.

"So because he killed Voldemort, Harry keeps all his properties?" She asked.

Kneescythe nodded. "Wages of Battle is one of Magical Britain's oldest laws. It is hardly ever invoked, as it is only valid when the vanquished is left without a viable male heir. It is also why no sane wizard would engage in a life and death duel without at least one heir. All Voldemort's assets transferred to you in nineteen eighty-one."

"We... are going to have to seriously brush up on these laws." Harry sighed. "I suppose we'll look at that while we're researching the legality of the Godric's Hollow property."

"We'll have time while we're at the Ministry. I'd be interested to have a look at the laws concerning Hogwarts as well." Hermione gave him an encouraging smile. Harry held her hand and smiled back in thanks.

"I guess the next concern is how do we get to Potter Glen? Is it on a map? Do you have a picture or something we could see?" Harry asked.

"No need." Kneescythe waved a hand. "Your rings, in addition to other functions, are permanent Portkeys to the Familial Seat. You can always go home."

"So we just click our heels together and say there's no place like home?" Harry raised his eyebrows.

Hermione bit back a giggle.

"I believe the specific phrase is 'Portkey Home Now.'" Kneescythe corrected.

"Thanks for that." Harry grinned.

"Are there copies of these ledgers we could take with us to study?' Hermione asked Kneescythe.

"There are functional duplicates at Potter Glen already. I believe your father kept them in the study."

"Brilliant, thank you Kneescythe. No doubt we'll have more questions after we familiarize ourselves with things. Was there anything else important for today?"

"Would you like to visit your vaults?" Kneescythe asked.

"Actually, that's probably a good idea. It wouldn't hurt to top up the coinpouch you gave me, since there are several shopping days before Christmas and Yule Ball."

"The coinpouch is not really relevant anymore," Kneescythe said, "Your Lord and Lady's rings will be sufficient to transfer funds for any purchases you make in Magical areas. If you visit again tomorrow or thereafter I'll have muggle credit and debit cards for you as well."

"Brilliant." Hermione smiled. "Thank you for everything, Kneescythe."

They returned the Accounts and Assets ledgers to the desk, then stood and bowed to Kneescythe.

"May your gold flow in mighty rivers," Harry said,

"Like the blood of your enemies." Hermione finished.

Kneescythe smiled at them, pressed lips and raised ears. "Dominion and Long Life." He said.

They waited until they were out of the bank and out of view of the goblins on guard to wrap their arms around each other.

"I'm so relieved." Hermione said with her face buried in his neck.

"Me too." Harry kissed her cheek.

"We'll have to study laws and politics starting next year, but we can handle that. We could switch our study group to that. I could see Neville joining, but not many others."

"As long as we get enough fly and cuddle time, I'm all for it."

"I keep wanting to pinch myself to see if I'm dreaming, but this is real. This is my actual life. Thank you so much, Harry." She whispered.

Harry pulled away to look into her now-wet eyes. "I want you to make me a promise." He said with a steely look in his eye and a sense of gravity in his voice.

She looked up at him, and suddenly she was back at the banquet table in the Great Hall being addressed by a larger-than-life hero who forced her bully to apologize. Her heart thumped hard against her ribs and her stomach did flip-flops. "Anything."

"It's going to seem frivolous, but I'm serious. This is the only Yule Ball we are ever going to have, so when you two go shopping for dresses and such, no holding back because you think something is too expensive. Go nuts and don't worry about the money. We didn't earn it, it doesn't seem real, but it apparently belongs to us regardless. If we don't use it to make brilliant memories, then it's no use at all. Buy Luna's outfit too. Call it a Christmas gift from us if you have to. I want you to have the best time, without worrying about anything."

How many boys would think about her enjoyment at all, let alone first? She knew she could answer her own question on one finger.

"Alright, but on one condition." She pulled his lips to hers and kissed him softly, a kiss rife with feeling and promise. "You do the same. I want you to get something that will make you feel as good as you look in it."

Harry grinned at her. "That was my plan."

She kissed him again. "Good plan." She smiled.

He bent and kissed her with purpose then. There was no other way to describe it. She had felt his ardent kiss, his hungry sexual kiss. She had felt his tender, caring kiss. She had even felt his fun, exuberant kiss, but this - this kiss _claimed_ her. This kiss told her in no uncertain terms that he desired the rest of her life and meant for it to be spent with him. It told her so that she _knew_ down to her bones that _he wanted her_. Not for fun, not to do his homework, not for a little while. It touched the abandoned, neglected little girl inside her and told her everything was going to be okay. Her heart clenched as she kissed him and unbidden tears rolled from her cheeks.

He noticed, and cupped her face in his hands. "I'm sorry Hermione, did I hurt you?" He smoothed her tears away with his thumbs while his brow furrowed.

She smiled through the tears, but they wouldn't stop coming. "Just the opposite."

"That's good?" His eyebrows reversed direction toward his hairline.

She smiled and kissed him again. "That's good. Kiss me like that again. A lot."

He grinned at her. "That would be my absolute pleasure."

"Not now though, I'd rather not keep crying in public." She kissed him tenderly and then wiped her face with her sleeve. She interlaced her left hand fingers with his left hand fingers, and held on tightly. "I think we should Portkey Home Now."

Magic yanked at them, and the world around them spun into a multicolored blur. Seconds later, they felt the ground under them become solid and the spinning stopped.

They were in a garden, next to a circular stone fountain. All around them flowers bloomed and tiny trees bore fruit. The sun shone down on them warmly enough to make their jackets seem excessive. Beyond the garden rose a manor house, stately and imposing. It was stone, but the ivy growing up parts of it gave it a cozy, welcoming feel.

"This can't be real." Hermione breathed.

Around them, four _CRACK_ s happened almost simultaneously. Four house elves appeared, and one of them stepped forward.

"Master and Mistress are home at last!" He said with a huge grin, "Brolly bes so happy to finally meet you! How wes can serve?"

"Sorry, I don't let anyone serve me." Harry said with a frown, "But I would love some new friends."

"Brolly not bes understanding the difference?" The Elf looked suddenly nervous.

"Well... why don't we all take a walk then? You can show us around the place, and we can talk about how being a friend is different than being a servant. Sound good?" Harry asked, then looked to Hermione, who smiled and nodded back to him.

Brolly and the others nodded vigorously, and began with a description of the gardens.

  
  


* * *

  
  


They appeared soundlessly in the very spot Harry had Apparated to as a child. Hermione took in the ravine, the crags on the opposite side, and the beautiful, barren sweep of the valley through the highlands. The scent of wildgrass was everywhere. It smelled like Harry.

Harry just watched her as the wind tugged at her hair and made her squint.

"It's pretty." Hermione said as she took it all in. "Pretty and cold."

Harry pointed at her feet. "Right there."

"Where? What? What is it?" She backed up and spun around trying to see what he was pointing at. "Is it on me? Is it a bug? Get it off!"

Harry laughed and caught her in a hug. "No, no bugs. You can relax." He looked down at the ground. "That's the spot Mother found me." He said as he let her go again.

"Oh! Really, right _here_? Merlin, Harry, how the hell did you get _here_ by yourself?!"

"Don't know that I did. Could've been brought and left for all I know." He said with a smile.

"Oh Harry, that's _horrible_..." She shoved his arms out of her way and wrapped herself around him again.

"Ancient history now, though. From what we learned of Mum and Dad from Nan and Grandad's portrait, I can't believe it was anyone they knew. Far as I'm concerned the question is still open." He kissed her forehead. "Somebody out there knows what happened, but honestly I'm not sure I care anymore. It's not like it will actually be relevant to who I am or the life we have in front of us."

"In some small way maybe. It won't change who you are. At least, I hope not."

Harry smiled as he shook his head and kissed her forehead. "Come on, Mother's just over there."

"Over where?" Hermione looked around at the lonely crags of rock in the direction he looked.

"Come on." He smiled, and began to Resonate. He lifted into the air and held his hand out to her.

She smiled back at him and Resonated as well, then lifted into the air and took his hand. She saw the Nest when they were high enough, and followed him down into it. They landed in the center of the nest and waited.

She knew Mother was a dragon. She'd even seen a model Harry had made of her twice. As she looked upon Mother's recumbent form curled atop her hoard... Hermione felt _very_ small. Icy shivers of fear raced through her, even though she knew she would be safe.

"You have never brought me pinkskin for breakfast before, my Young. It is a curious choice." Mother rumbled as her head lifted from where it lay to point directly at her.

Despite herself, Hermione trembled.

"She's teasing." Harry whispered to her. "She can smell me on you."

"I'll get breakfast in a minute, Mother. I wanted to introduce you to my Mate first. Her name is Hermione, of the Granger. Hermione, this is my Mother, Swims-in-Stars of the Svurtr."

Hermione bowed low, and Mother took the opportunity to breathe Hermione's scent from close up. As was to be expected, the female smelled like a pinkskin. She shot flame from her nostrils to clear the scent before she spoke.

"You are welcome to my Nest, Young. Rise and be at home."

Hermione grinned as she stood again. "Thank you, Mother. It is wonderful to finally meet you. Harry - Hidden Colours - has told me so much about you. Thank you for being his Mother."

"He has been a satisfying Young. Is he a satisfying Mate?"

"That's my cue." Harry interjected, "I will leave you ladies to talk and return with breakfast." He Resonated, and rose out of the Nest to disappear from sight.

Hermione waited until he'd gone before she spoke. "He is brilliant, Mother. I am the luckiest girl in the world to be his Mate."

Mother chuffed quietly. "You are wise beyond your years to keep such knowledge from him."

"He knows how I feel. I hope he feels the same, but... being a Mate, it's very new. I was raised as a pinkskin, and sometimes my real life feels like I'm dreaming. Like it's too wonderful to be real."

Mother raised her head, shook her neck, and let out a stuttering belch of flame. Hermione could have sworn it was laughter.

"All new Mates are so. I remember my own time, when my Mate yet remained."

"Hidden Colours told me, Mother. I'm so sorry." Hermione crossed the Nest and wrapped a hug around Mother's neck before she realized what she was doing. "We go to look for him this summer. With any luck we will bring him back to you."

Hermione let go of Mother's neck and then realized she didn't know if Mother was alright with hugs. Mother snorted a gout of flame and lowered her head to look into Hermione's eyes.

"You would do such a thing for one you had not met?" She hissed incredulously.

Hermione nodded. "Of course. I think how I would feel if Hidden Colours were taken from me. I could never just let you stay that way if there was something I could do about it. Hidden Colours and I can travel hundreds of wingbeats away instantly. We will go search the place where pinkskins take Svurtr and Sarkany and Yulong and others."

"I... did not know there was such a place." Mother said quietly, then bumped Hermione softly with her snout. "You have my thanks, successor. Even if he does not yet live."

"Why do you call me successor, Mother?" She stroked Mother's snout plates.

"You are my successor. I do not have Young of my own, so I must rely on your eggs."

"Oh." Hermione blushed. "May i... ask some strange personal questions?"

"You may."

"I know what to expect from a pinkskin body - I know how it works, what it feels like, and what to expect with regard to... reproduction. The trouble is, I'm not entirely pinkskin anymore. I know nothing about Svurtr bodies - eggs, hormones, fertility cycles, reproduction. What is life like for a fertile female Svurtr?"

"Since Hidden Colours has not brought you to me before now, I can only assume that you met at this "school" he spoke of?" Mother shifted her weight on her hoard to look more directly at Hermione.

"Yes, it's only been a few months."

"You have not yet endured egg season then. When the snow melts and the land renews itself, you will know that your eggs ripen. Near the end of that season - you will know when - your eggs will be ready to take male seed. You will want nothing else. You will not eat, you will not leave the nest, you will mate. You will want to do nothing but mate for several days. How many days you mate will differ from Svurtr to Svurtr, but we are all nestbound until afterward. It may take you days of rest to recover afterward. Just be careful not to break your Mate, you will need him for hundreds and hundreds of seasons."

"So... I'm only going to ovulate once a _year_?" Hermione's eyes went wide. It was true she hadn't had her period since she had changed, but she also knew she hadn't had sex yet, so she hadn't been worried about a pregnancy.

Mother nodded. "How often to pinkskin eggs ripen?"

"Every twenty-eight days, give or take."

Mother reared back in shock. "It is no wonder their numbers swell so! By the Clutch! How long does it take them to hatch?"

"Pinkskins don't lay, they keep the eggs inside. Only one grows into another pinkskin, and that takes almost a year. Sometimes one pinkskin can carry several Young, but it's very rare."

"That is so strange." Mother shook her head.

"May I return to speak with you about such things in the future? When I am uncertain that I am healthy?" Hermione bit her lip. Her own mother had given her several books on the subject when she was nine and they'd never spoken a word about it.

"That would please me greatly, successor. I am very gratified by Hidden Colours' visits. It is not among Svurtr instincts to remain close to the birthing nest."

"It is very much a pinkskin instinct for parents to want to remain close to their Young even after they have left the nest. Pinkskins only live eighty years or so, and always want to make sure their Young are doing well. The Young likewise want to remain close to their parents... generally speaking."

"I see. Some of the behaviour Hidden Colours has described begins to make more sense."

"Which behaviour?" Harry asked as he descended into the Nest with a goat held by the horn in one hand.

"Schools, and how you said some parents could not teach." Mother replied.

"Ah." Harry said. He dropped the goat and walked over to Mother to hug her around the neck. "Happy Christmas, Mother."

"Happy Christmas?" Mother repeated as she raised a browridge.

"It's a pinkskin celebration of family, it happens at this time each year." Hermione explained.

"Then... I will see you both _every year_?" Mother asked.

"At least once." Harry affirmed.

Mother thrummed in her chest. "This pleases me. I look forward to meeting your Young as well."

Harry turned bright red.

"I'm afraid that will be a few years yet, Mother. We still have to finish school first." Hermione grinned at Harry's obvious discomfort.

"So embarrassing....Sorry about that." Harry whispered to Hermione.

"We'd best be going Mother, we're expected at the MacFusty's as well." Harry said.

Hermione crossed to hug Mother's neck again as well. "Happy Christmas, Mother. We'll see you next year if not before."

"I look forward to it, Young ones." Mother thrummed again.

Hermione went to take Harry's hand, and he began to Resonate, so she did as well. Harry's other hand raised, and the goat floated from the floor a few feet into the air. It split down the center, and a pile of organs and intestines larger than the actual goat poured out of it before the goat lay back down on the stone.

"See you soon, Mother." Harry waved as he and Hermione rose into the air and flew toward the MacFusty farm.

Hermione flew close to him and wrapped her arms around him as they slowly spiraled through the air. "Mother's great." She smiled at him. "Thank you for that." She kissed him.

"On to mother number three." Harry smiled and kissed her again.

"Honestly I'm almost more afraid of her and your sisters than I was of Mother, just... in a different way."

Harry smiled and rested his forehead against hers. "Nonsense. If they weren't kind, smart people, they wouldn't have taken me in at all. Just be yourself."

"I suppose." She looked into his deep green eyes and saw warmth, support, and pride. He was _proud_ of her. It was more than she could say for her parents. "I'll try to relax, but this is essentially your family, Harry. I... I want them to like me."

"That's why I said be yourself. Do that and they'll like you as much as I do." He kissed her nose quickly. "You're still mine though."

She smiled and hugged his neck tightly, then spun away from him and soared lazily through the air. All too soon, their flight ended and they set down inside the front gate of the MacFusty farm.

She could feel when they passed through the wards, so it was no surprise that a man and three women came out of the front door. Fergus - she could only assume it was him, since he was the only MacFusty male apart from Harry - was average height and build, but clearly accustomed to hard work. He had short-cropped hair and a thick beard, both of auburn with copper highlights. Maisie - the oldest woman - was still vibrant, and like Fergus no stranger to work. Her wheat-coloured locks were tied up in a neat bun on the back of her head.

The other two women were too close in age and both strawberry blonde, so there was no way for her to tell which was Argonna and which was Darcy. All three women stood there for a moment and then nearly ran back inside. It was cold out.

"Wat yer standin' oo' there far?" Fergus asked with a grin, "Git inside, ye dairty wee dragonspawn!"

Harry held her hand as he walked up to Fergus and gave him a hug. "Fergus, may I introduce Hermione, Queen of my heart. Hermione, Fergus MacFusty. Passable farmer and first-rate surrogate dad."

"Oi, passable!?" Fergus frowned and gave Harry a swat on the shoulder. Harry grinned back. Fergus turned to Hermione and smiled charmingly. "'Tis a smashin' great pleasure t'welcome ye t'air 'umble abide, Queen Hairmione." He bowed at the waist. "Please, coom make yersailf t'home. The gairls are fair t'screamin t'hear aboot yer fairst tairm."

Harry led her up the porch stairs to the house and inside to where the women waited. Harry hugged her from behind as he spoke to the MacFusty women.

"Maisie, Argie, Darcy, allow me to introduce Hermione, yes the same Hermione I wrote about. Hermione, Maisie third mother on the left, then Argie and Darcy, the evil stepsisters."

Argie grinned. "We're only evil te ye, cheeky bugger."

Hermione held her hand out to Maisie, who ignored it and swept her into a bone-crunching hug. "Yai're _soo_ wailcome here, lass. I want t'hear _aivrythin'_ about ye, and espaicially ye an' my wee Duncles."

Hermione giggled and looked at Harry. "Wee Duncles." She whispered at him as her eyes sparkled.

"Aye, an' aboot time I had a _proper_ sister too." Darcy hugged Hermione next, and stuck her tongue out at Argie.

Argie hugged Hermione when Darcy let her go, and then smiled at her warmly. "Ignore her, she's jaist upset she cannae try an' steal _yair_ baifriend."

"You're welcome to try, but I warn you there's a very long line ahead of you." Hermione smiled, since she knew none of them had a chance in any case.

"Ooo, brilliant saigue!" Darcy grinned. "Come get a cuppa an taill us who's in the lineup." She motioned Hermione into the kitchen, so Hermione followed. Suddenly Fergus and Harry were alone in the living room.

"An' tha's the lot o'them gone til dainner." Fergus sighed. "Come on, set doon an' give us the story, lad."

"That's a long tell - and ties into having to go meet with Arthur Weasley on the twenty-eighth."

Fergus frowned. "Tha's a tale in itsailf."

Harry nodded and sat next to Fergus on the sofa. "That it is." He started with meeting Hermione on the train, just after he'd left them. He included his thoughts when he saw her the first time, because he knew that Maisie and the girls were likely dragging Hermione's perspective from her. Harry knew Maisie and Fergus would share both with each other later.

He continued through meeting and talking with Luna on the train after that. He told of meeting his new friends in the first year lineup, and how strange it had all been, and how Maisie's advice had helped. He went through the events at dinner bit by bit, and Fergus agreed he'd done the right thing. Not the easy thing, like the others had done, but the right thing. Fergus was also surprised he showed such restraint in dealing with Ronald.

"Any bai pickin' on a wee lass isnae wairth wastin' sympathy on. Wanted a sound thrashin', 'e did." Fergus growled.

"He got it. I told him what would happen if he insulted her again. He did, but that's later in the story."

Harry went through his worries that he'd offended Hermione, and then the weeks she'd stalked him, her invisible warnings, and the trap he set for her. Fergus was astounded that she'd figured out his identity just from a few clues.

"Hermione is quite possibly the smartest witch alive, Dad." Harry told him. "Part of why I feel so unbelievably lucky that she likes me the same."

"Dinnae lose tha' feelin'. Naiver take a woman fer granted. I know ye'll nae, but remaimber anyway."

Harry nodded and made a mental note. He was about to continue the story, but Maisie called them to the table. He held Hermione's chair for her before he seated himself, as was proper. Hermione wore a relaxed, happy smile, but also showed just a little redness around her eyes. It was easy to miss, but Harry knew it meant she'd been crying.

"Everything alright?" He whispered in her ear.

"Everything's brilliant. Tell you about it when we get home." She whispered back, then kissed his neck just below his ear.

"Soo thain," Fergus began when they were all seated and had dinner well started, "On to the tough quaistion - how are yer grades?" He aimed a pointed look at Harry, who smiled back at him with a mouth full of roast beef and gravy. Hermione answered for him.

"Harry's number two in the entire school. We do tons of extracurricular work and private study projects, so he regularly gets over a hundred percent on assignments."

"Gait oot!" Argie said and waved her knife at Harry, " _this_ slacker?" She smiled, which broke her mock-shocked expression.

"I'd have had the top spot, except I had to rush one Transfigurations essay because _someone_ wanted to go flying." Harry said with a sidelong glance at Hermione.

"If you'd finished it earlier instead of gabbing with your gaggle of girls, you wouldn't have had to rush." Hermione said primly.

"Yer _gaggle_ o'gairls?" Fergus raised an eyebrow.

"After his display in the Great Hall, and with him being so kind and approachable, it's not exactly his fault," Hermione explained, "but it does get annoying sometimes. I can't really complain though, most of them are friends from Study Group."

" _And_ you know you're the only one for me." Harry reminded her.

Hermione paused to look him in the eyes and smile. " _And_ we're already married."

" _Married_?!" Fergus's eyebrows shot toward his hairline. "Tha - bu - Ye cannae, ye're fourteen!" Maisie, Argie, and Darcy looked unsurprised. Harry supposed Hermione had already told them.

Harry swallowed his mouthful before speaking. "Magic decided we were married, so we're married. We didn't even know about it until I got a letter from Gringott's congratulating us. No worries though, you'll be the first to know when we decide to have the ceremony."

"Besides, he's legally of age now anyway, thanks to the Tournament nonsense." Hermione added.

"You wot?" Fergus asked.

"I hadn't gotten to that part of the story yet." Harry said after a mouthful of mashed potatoes and gravy. "There's supposed to be three Champions chosen for the Tournament, to compete in tasks, et cetera. Because the Triwizard was deadly previously, the Ministry decided that only wizards and witches who are _of age_ could be chosen by the Goblet of Fire to be Champions." He took a sip of water. "After the Goblet had chosen all three Champions, my name came out of it. We still don't yet know how it got in there or who did it, but there was a Death Eater posing as our Defense teacher, so that's a solid guess."

Tension flared at the table like an invisible bonfire.

"I thought that if only 'of age' people are allowed to compete,” Harry continued, “And I'm being forced to, that's pretty much the same thing as the Ministry saying I'm of age. So I wrote to my accounts manager and he prepared the paperwork, then my Godfather filed it for me, so now we're both legally adults."

"Godfather?" Maisie asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Sirius Black." Hermione supplied. "Innocent of what he was put in prison for, and didn't betray Harry's parents after all. Seems like a decent man, if a little wild around the edges."

"Hermione actually met him first, last year. He broke into the Gryffindor dorms to collect the real traitor who had been hiding as a pet rat. Imagine sleeping with your pet rat only to find out the next day it's actually a middle aged Death Eater guy. One thing I almost feel sorry for Weasley about."

"Oh _gross_!" Darcy made a disgusted face.

Hermione slapped Harry's shoulder. "People are _eating_." She admonished.

Harry smiled softly. "You're right, sorry everyone. One other good thing to come out of the Tournament business is I got to have a conversation with a Horntail. She turned out to be really nice. The officials wanted us to get a fake egg out of her nest while she was guarding it -"

" _What_?!" Argie exclaimed, shocked.

Hermione nodded at her. "It's true. They were _so_ disappointed when Harry just walked up and talked to her."

"The other Champions - well, two of them, still not sure about the third - are friends, so Hermione was in the stands to make sure nothing terrible happened to them. I wasn't allowed to watch. Everyone made it through relatively unscathed. The only other good thing to come from the Tournament happens tomorrow night." Harry's eyes sparkled as he smiled at Hermione.

"What's tomorrow night, besides Christmas?" Fergus asked.

"Yule Ball." Harry said, "Apparently it's tradition for the Tournament. Hermione, Luna, Neville, Daphne and I went shopping yesterday for formal wear, but they wouldn't let us see the dresses yet."

"Ye dinnae tell us tha'!" Darcy accused Hermione, "After dainner, all aboot the draiss!" She grinned.

Hermione smiled back. "There wasn't time, and I'll just show you, that'll be faster."

As if spurred on by that, dinner was over ten minutes later. Harry and Fergus cleared the plates and assigned themselves to kitchen clean-up while the ladies retired to the living room by the fire.

Hermione levitated a piece of firewood from the stack beside the fireplace, and transfigured it into a smaller version of the dress she had bought.

"Oh loov, tha's _gorgeous_!" Maisie whispered.

"Aye, officially jealous noo." Darcy smiled and hugged Hermione. "The bai wil trip on his own jaw. Promise ye'll send paictures."

Hermione nodded with a smile. "I promise."

Darcy smiled. "Wailcome to the family, sis. I'm thrilled our wee bai is in such good hainds."

Hermione smiled in return. "Thank you so much, all of you. I was actually almost more afraid of meeting you than I was of meeting Mother. It was too much to hope for you to be as nice as you are. This is the best family gathering I've ever had." She dried her eyes on her sleeve.

Maisie ran her hand down Hermione's braid. "Tha' isnae right, lass." She said softly, "I dinnae ken wha' yer home life is like, but ye've always a place here. We love our wee bai te bits, an' 'e clearly loves ye the same. Tha' makes ye family, no maitter wha' else 'appens."

Hermione's face twisted as she held back tears. "Love? You think so? Really?"

"Oh dearie." Maisie smiled at her, "Can ye no see it? It shines out 'is face jus' the same it's shinin' out yers now."

"'E braids yer hair." Darcy pointed out.

"An' ye've no doubt been t'a broom closet, 'aven't ye?" Argie asked with a sharklike grin.

Hermione bit both her lips and went red.

"Hah! I knew it!" Argie laughed and clapped Hermione on the back. "Wail bloody doon! Hoo was 'e? Fair te middlin'?"

Hermione shook her head slowly. " _Amazing_." She whispered.

"Ah, shite. Noo I'm jailous too." Argie pouted.

"I'd say I'll send pictures to you too, but No Chance." Hermione smiled.

Darcy and Argie both laughed.

"Mam, braing oot the book fair ma wee sis, wouldye?" Darcy said with a mischeivous grin.

"If an' only if Duncles agrees." Maisie replied sternly. "Ye know wha's in there, an tha's a mean thaing te do if he dinnae."

"Ye're a pairty pooper, mam. I'll goo ask." Darcy sighed and walked to the kitchen. She could hear Harry's voice over the running water in the sink. He sounded horrified. His head poked out a moment later, red as boiled lobster. His eyes sought hers, and she didn't really understand what was going on, so she blew him a kiss. He caught his lower lip in his teeth as though aggravated, but then sighed and blew her a kiss back before his head retreated.

Darcy literally skipped back into the room. "He said he hates the three of us, but he cannae deny Hermione even the most embarrassin' shite."

"Sounds like aye te me." Maisie smiled. "Goo on thain." Darcy shot up the stairs and returned seconds later carrying a thick wood-bound book. She shooed Argie out of her seat so she could sit next to Hermione, and made herself comfortable.

"I'm almost afraid to ask after all that." Hermione smiled at Darcy. Darcy just put the book in Hermione's lap.

"Ye can thaink me later." She smiled smugly.

Hermione looked at Argie and Maisie as she opened the cover of the book. Argie had a very faint pink in her cheeks and she pointedly didn't look at the book. Maisie merely smiled back at her with a patient and somewhat proud look in her eyes.

Hermione looked down at the book, and her eyes nearly bulged out of her head. The photo on the first page was of Fergus's back as he pointed his wand at a ragged-haired, filthy, feral and completely, utterly _naked_ Harry. He looked to be about a foot shorter than Fergus, and his white teeth shone out of his grimy, mud-smeared face.

She reached out and touched the photo, stroked her fingers down Harry's face. "How old is he here?" She asked Maisie softly.

Maisie smiled down at the photo. "Tha' were the very day he appeared, jus' 'ello, I'm naiked Airy Pottarrh on yer doorstaip'. He were tain years old."

"Ten years old..." Hermione whispered. She turned the page, and there he was again in all his naked glory, freshly scrubbed and standing in a tub filled with dark grey water. He was in the act of reaching out for the camera when the shot was taken.

The next picture was him pulling at the T-shirt he wore, with a very uncomfortable grimace on his face.

"Oh, the poor thing..." Hermione bit her lip as warmth bloomed in her chest.

The picture after that, he was missing the T-shirt and he wore the jeans on his head instead. He had a happy laugh on his face and was in the process of attacking the camera again.

The next page was two pictures, one with Harry - fully clothed - sat between Maisie and Fergus with the girls on either side, then the one below was Harry sat between the girls with Fergus and Maisie on either side.

She flipped through the memories, page after page of Harry's forced civilization. There were pictures of his first drawing, his first written word, his first birthday party, the first book he ever finished. Each and every photo sank through her chest and took up residence in her heart - not simply because it was a record of the unseen part of the life of her husband, but because she was positive no book like that existed in her parents' house. She knew in that moment how to be a parent, and simultaneously that hers weren't.

She continued to flip pages, and the pictures showed Harry as he grew into the man he was, bit by bit. They showed him angry and frustrated, they showed him sad, they showed him happy and laughing. It was like she got to experience him growing up, and that was a treasure without peer. She didn't even realize she was crying until Harry handed her a tissue.

"Sorry for the embarrassing stuff." He whispered, still clearly mortified. He rested on his elbows on the back of the couch as he stood behind her. Fergus took a seat in the chair next to Maisie.

She shook her head after she blew her nose. "It's beautiful." She said softly. "I never thought I'd be able to see..." She turned to Maisie. "May I copy this?"

Maisie smiled. "Aye, o'course. It's yers now as waill. The raist of 'is life will be down to you to record, same as 'e'll do fer ye."

Harry groaned. "Noooo. Just burn it, please."

Hermione turned to him with a smile. "No chance. This is _gold_."

Harry groaned again, and Maisie and his sisters chuckled at him. Hermione reached up behind her and pulled him into a kiss.

"Aw, bless." Maisie said with a grin.

Hermione let Harry go, then closed the book in her lap and took out her wand. She concentrated through the wand movement as she whispered " _Geminus_." She added a second flourish of her wand to the end of the spell.

"Oh tha' were lovely wairk!" Maisie exclaimed happily. "Pairmanency rune tacked on th'end, aye?"

Hermione grinned and nodded.

"But ye're only wha'? Fourth yair?" Maisie frowned.

"There's a reason she's top spot, Mum. We should be finished seventh year by end of June." Harry said.

"Wha'll ye do after ye finish?" Darcy asked, confused. "Are ye no there another three yairs?"

"We're going to pick a mastery each and work on that, and review the year we're supposed to be in, of course." Hermione supplied.

"Tha's... Aimbitious." Maisie raised her eyebrows.

"And mostly thanks to you, teaching me way more than I needed to know to test into my year." Harry grinned and rubbed Maisie's shoulder.

"Isnae my doin, lad. Ye dinnae want tae stop lairnin'." She grinned back at him.

"Still don't." He grinned back. "It's too much fun."

"Are ye remaimbrin' t'ave fun at school? Dinnae grind yersailf doon." Fergus cautioned.

Argie laughed. "Oh they're remaimbrin t'ave fun, Da." She winked at Hermione, who glanced at Harry while she turned slowly red.

"Nae _too_ much fun I hope." Fergus frowned at Harry. Maisie looked at Fergus and tried to hide a smile.

"Dad! Really?" Harry looked pointedly at Fergus while he went the same shade of red as Hermione.

"An' now ye know wha’ we've both 'ad te deal with." Darcy smiled. "It were jus' yer turn, 'Airy."

"Tha' is a lovely shade o' red tho." Maise smiled at both the teens.

A flash of light happened then, and Argie smiled out from behind a camera. "Tha' s gontae be _pairfect_." She grinned at them. "Promise I'll saind a copy when I get it devailoped."

"Thanks." Hermione smiled back at Argie despite her embarrassment.

"Darcy, budge off an' Airy, you sit naixt t'Hermione." Argie commanded as she waved her hand. Darcy saw Argie was about to take pictures, and complied. Harry sat next to Hermione, until Argie waved her hand again. "Closer t'gaither you two, shove in. Darce, you on th'end naixt te th'lovebairds."

The sofa only had room for three adults, so Hermione just sat in Harry's lap with one arm around his neck.

"Come on, Da, git in there wi' Mam." Argie waved at her father. Fergus just sat on Maisie's lap with one arm around her neck.

"Ha ha! Pairfect!" Argie laughed. "Alraight, smile!" Argie snapped a few pictures, then Darcy switched places with Argie and Darcy took a few. Hermione switched out after that and took a few with Darcy sitting on Harry's lap, and then Argie. Harry looked annoyed and long-suffering during both, especially when Argie and Darcy kissed one of his cheeks each at the same time. Hermione bit back a snarl at that, even though it also made her smile. Harry took the camera from her after that, and Hermione was pulled to the sofa between Argie and Darcy, who kissed her cheeks as well. Hermione laughed and wrapped an arm around Argie's neck and one around Darcy's, and hugged them both.

"Best Christmas ever." She grinned as Harry snapped pictures.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Lammy and Brolly appeared the moment they walked through the wards into the garden.

"Welcome home." Brolly smiled. "Good visit?"

"The _best_ , Brolly, thanks for asking. The MacFustys are really nice. How was your evening?" She smiled at Harry and swung their hands between them.

"Lovely, thank you. Lammy and Jolly and I replaced the Potter heraldry with MacFusty, as you requested. It was a grand time." Brolly answered with a wide grin.

"Thanks for that. I hate to ask, but it's very temporary. I'm glad you had fun." Harry smiled. "We're probably just going to go right to bed since it's kind of late, so we'll be fine on our own if you two want to do your own thing."

"We'll call if we need you, of course." Hermione added.

Lammy and Brolly looked a little saddened, but nodded and smiled before they popped away.

Harry wrapped his arm around Hermione's shoulders as they finished the walk to the house.

"That was the best Christmas Eve I can remember." She told him when they were inside.

"Me too, and since my last four were with them, this one is all down to you." Harry kissed her forehead. She snaked her arms around his ribs and held him close with her head on his chest. Harry's arms automatically wrapped around her, and his right cradled her head against him.

He had practiced so much in the last week, his feet just started a lazy waltz without permission, and Hermione responded in kind. She lifted her head to look into his eyes after a moment, when she realized what they were doing.

She raised an eyebrow at him while they danced.

She was treated to her favourite embarrassed Harry face then. "I've been practicing... A lot." His cheeks went red and his heart practically throbbed in his eyes. "I didn't want to embarrass you."

She smiled as her heart twisted in her chest, and she caught his face in her hands to kiss him thoroughly. "I'm so happy we get to stay together, Harry. You make me feel so... I would not give this up for anything. No matter what comes, no matter what happens in the future, being with you is everything to me. As long as we're together, we'll get through anything. I just know it."

"There is nowhere I would rather be than at your side, Hermione. You make me feel that way too." He looked down at her with a smile and watery eyes.

She stopped dancing and just squeezed him as though trying to pressure weld the two of them together.

"Come to bed." Harry said softly. "I desperately need to cuddle you just now."

Her grip shifted and she bent, shoulder into his stomach and arm behind his knees as she stood up again with him over her shoulder.

He laughed as she carried him up the stairs to the bedroom and flopped him on the bed. Her face shone with laughter as well. She pounced on him and curled up on top of him like a cat. He laughed again and stroked her hair.

"Ferocious kitty cuddles." He said warmly. Hermione chuckled at that as well and started kneading his chest like a cat. She faked a pout and climbed off him then.

"Doesn't work as well while you're still dressed." She sighed. "Hurry and get ready for bed." She kissed him and retreated to her bathroom. Harry rose and went to his own to brush his teeth and change, and when he returned Hermione was already in bed waiting for him, covers pulled up to her chin.

"Could you..." Hermione said and then bit her lip as he stopped moving with one knee on the bed.

"Could I?" He asked.

"Sleep without your top on?" She asked as her cheeks flushed.

Harry thought that was a little odd for her to ask, but it set his heart racing anyway. He shrugged out of his top and folded it, then put it back in his drawer. He wasn't embarrassed at being half naked, but he was self-conscious about his fine dusting of dark chest hair, it was new in the last few months. Hermione set his mind at ease though, as she practically purred when he slipped into bed next to her. She scooched her back into him and hummed as she always did at connecting with his warmth.

That was when he felt bare skin on his chest.

Her soft skin brushed against his. She took his hand and placed it on her stomach, and he froze. He desperately wanted to explore every inch of her skin, but touching just her bare stomach made his fingers tingle and he felt his body react embarrassingly.

"Hermione..." He whispered.

She turned inside his embrace, and she slipped her leg between his so that his embarrassment was touching her hip. He could feel her soft chest harden against his, and his mind spun.

He only vaguely registered that his hand, on the small of her back, pulled her tighter to him.

She looked up into his eyes, her warm, rich chocolate irises thin rings around her enlarged pupils. "I don't think we should go all the way yet, but..." She blushed as she put her hand on his behind, "I want more than cuddles."

Harry kissed her and looked into her eyes. "You tell me when to stop then, because I don't think I'll be able to otherwise." He slid his hand downward onto her behind and squeezed. Her eyes closed and she moaned as she ground herself into his thigh.

"I'll try." She said in a low, husky tone and captured his lips with hers. She tried to show him with her lips and tongue how hot he made her feel inside; how badly she wanted him. He replied with his mouth and hands that he wanted her just the same. The brush of his fingers against her hardened tips sent sparks across her skin. Every caress, every pull and roll sent new sensations up and down her spine. It was so different from doing it herself, _so much_ _better_. His hungry kisses trailed fire down her neck, and she had no hope of containing the groan that leapt from her throat as his mouth found her breast.

"Fuck Harry that feels _so good_." She whispered hoarsely. Her hands went into his hair, her nails against his scalp and guided his head to her other breast, and the delicious electric shivers doubled. She wouldn't have stopped her hips if she could have as they ground against his thick, hard torso. Memories of his hot stiffness in her hand flooded her mind and she longed for it again, to feel it against her, to take it into the aching hollowness it was meant to fill.

Harry stopped his tongue on her breasts then. She could feel his hand on her stomach, and heard him start to make that ticking purr again, just like outside the infirmary and by Hagrid's hut. He rubbed his face on her stomach as his purr deepened, and she could feel it vibrating her skin. The hand that had been kneading her left breast hooked into her underwear and tore it from her body as though it was made of tissue paper. He let out a growl from deep in his chest, and then his face was between her legs.

Each rumble from his purr vibrated her delicate skin. Each pulsing tick he made with his throat made her gasp in pleasure. His tongue was hot as it parted her slick folds and sent lightning up her spine. She could hear herself moan his name as he lapped at her and his tongue ran laps around her most sensitive skin.

As if his tongue and vibrating face weren't enough, he began _speaking_ into her. The dragon speech caused his tongue to ripple and curl inside her, and she became conscious that her moans had become whines of _need_ as his attention built the pressure inside her like nothing she had ever done to herself before. She held onto his head because her legs moved on their own and threatened to take her away from the heaven of his mouth. His hands went to her hipbones and gripped them tightly enough to keep her where she was whether she wanted it or not, and that in itself heightened her pleasure.

"Going to hold you down." He hissed into her. "Bite the back of your neck. You're mine."

She _wanted_ that. It frightened her just _how much_ she wanted it. The thought of him as he held her down and pumped his hot strength in and out of her was too much. The pressure that had built inside her exploded, and her mind simply _stopped_ , replaced by white fire. She could feel her body twitch and jerk when she came back to it. She floated in a haze as she listened to herself pant and whine and grunt, but Harry hadn't even slowed down.

"I will make you feel my power. Put it inside you and claim your eggs. We will have to rebuild the nest when I am done with you."

A tiny part of her mind thought the things he was saying were cute and kind of embarrassing, but the vast majority of her mind screamed "YES!" She grabbed his wrists, intent on pulling his hands from her hips so she could lower herself onto his manhood, but he did not let go. She realized he was too strong to deny and that she was at his mercy, but that only stoked the pressure inside her. The world exploded again. And again. And again. She rode a thundering wave of pleasure from trough to peak to trough to peak.

She didn't know how much later it was when she hoarsely asked him to stop, but he did. She saw his eyes change from dragon back to human, and immediately filled with concern for her.

"I'm sorry, I... did I hurt you? I couldn't..."

"Shh, Harry." She pulled his face to hers. His face glistened from his eyebrows to his collarbones, but she didn't care. She kissed him soundly and showed him how filled with care and contentment she was. "You were perfect. _Unbelievable_. I have _never_ felt like that before. Never felt like this before. I'm _so happy_ , Harry. Happy and tired now. That was the best experience of my entire life. The best night of my life. I'm only sorry I'm too tired to do the same for you."

Tears shone in the corners of her eyes as he smiled down at her.

"I'm so glad I could make you happy." He kissed her gently. "And... that I found out what was causing my _episodes_." He ran his index finger up her slick wetness and caused her stomach to jerk, then put it in his mouth and sucked it clean. "It was you all along." He grinned and kissed her again. "It was you outside the infirmary and by Hagrid's woodpile, wasn't it?"

If it had been possible to push more blood into her face she would have. She nodded slightly as she put her hand in front of her face in embarrassment. Harry took hold of it gently and moved it away from her, then kissed her again tenderly.

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Not with me. That was amazing. You're amazing, Hermione. Thank you for always watching out for me, even when I didn't know I needed you to." He stroked her sweaty hair back from her face and smiled down at her.

She reached up, pulled him down to her and snuggled into him with a satisfied sigh. She felt him Resonate briefly as he cleaned the bed, then he wrapped his arms around her and she floated serenely on a cloud of bliss, warmed by the tender closeness of her Harry.

She woke from a dream about being on a ship as it pitched and rolled at sea, to find that she had half-climbed on top of him during the night. She could hear his breath in his chest and the room slowly rose and fell. Birds had just begun to sing, and she could see the sun graced the tips of the trees beyond the garden.

She could also see Harry's stiffness as it poked out from the waistband of his pyjamas.

She'd seen pictures of them before, of course. Studied some of them intently with her door locked, even. This was her first real-life, up-close experience though - the broom closet didn't count, she couldn't see anything then. She knew how it felt through his jeans, she knew it was big, she knew it was hot and smelled wonderful and made a sticky mess. Seeing it though... She hadn't expected it to be so _cute_ , or so _soft_. The skin covering it was silk against her fingers.

Harry moaned softly and then she felt his fingers in her hair.

"Now _that's_ a Happy Christmas." he sighed.

She turned to look at him, and saw him wince as her curls hit her own knuckles and what she held.

"That's nice, is it?" She asked as she stroked him up and down.

"Very. Nice enough you have to stop now or it's going to get messy."

She smiled at him and slipped her hand further into his pyjamas, without stopping. He looked as though he were about to say something, to implore her to stop, but she poured her lust through her eyes into his, and he understood she was doing exactly what she wanted to do.

"Tell me when." She whispered excitedly. "I want to see it."

He nodded. "Soon. That feels _really_ good."

She could feel his pulse up and down the length of it increase as she slid her fingers over it. She reached out and wrapped her lips around the end of it, and he groaned immediately. His hips bucked as he tried to get more of it in her mouth, and that made her smile. She knew that feeling, he'd introduced her to it last night. She swirled her tongue around it and up and down for just a moment as his breath came in ragged gasps and groans.

"Now!" He grunted. She jerked her face away and watched with rapt fascination as he pulsed in her hand and thick white ropes of fluid squirted out. She hadn't moved far enough away, and some of it landed on her breast. It was warm, as warm as the rest of him was in her hand. Five times his stomach flexed and more liquid squirted out while she watched. She knew it was called semen, she knew where and how it was produced - the books her mother had given her were _very_ detailed - but it was another thing entirely to watch it and feel it happen; To feel it on her skin, and know that she had _made_ it happen.

"That's _Brilliant_." She said, awed.

The whole thing had excited her just as much as lying half-naked next to him last night had, but in a more immediate and sexual way. It was less intimate, but no less insistent.

Harry pulled her up to him and kissed her, and she smiled with the happiness and contentment she could feel from him.

"You're brilliant." He told her. "Thank you for that."

"Happy Christmas." She grinned at him as she pulled the covers off them both and stood. Then she remembered she was completely naked and moved to cover herself, but stopped. He'd already seen all of her so what was the point?

"Happy Christmas." He stood up as well and made a beeline for the bathroom, so she followed him.

He stopped and looked at her.

"You're going to shower, aren't you?" She asked.

"Umm... yeah." He replied.

"Good, then we can shower together and save time." She smiled, and passed him into the bathroom where she turned the shower on.

They soaped each other up, discovered slippery embraces, and saved no time at all.

It was nearly an hour later when they toweled each other off and coated each other in kisses before they dressed. Lammy and Polly were waiting for them when they got downstairs to the kitchen.

"Good morning, and Happy Christmas!" They both said in unison.

"What would you like for breakfast, Mister and Missus?" Lammy asked.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and blushed.

"Just some fruit and maybe a croissant?" Harry suggested. They knew they'd be having a huge Hogwarts dinner and didn't want to be full.

"That's good, and a small bowl of oatmeal for me as well please. And orange juice." Hermione smiled. "I'm actually fairly hungry."

"Good!" Lammy smiled. "Missus is very skinny." She and Polly immediately went to work in the kitchen while Hermione frowned.

"Actually, this is my perfect body weight, Lammy. I should never be any skinnier or fatter than I am now." She corrected.

Lammy looked her up and down critically. "As Missus says." She sighed, and fetched some fruit from the stasis cabinet.

"Thanks Lammy." Harry grinned at her. He thought Lammy would make a good mother, but her efforts on Hermione were wasted. Hermione was much too independent and might even resent the mothering after her own mother had all but abandoned her. He was not looking forward to the next day for that reason.

Hermione devoured her breakfast while Harry ate his croissant and picked at the fruit.

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked, a grape halfway to her mouth. Her brows had furrowed and concern shadowed her features.

Harry reached out and took her hand. "Nothing." He smiled. "I was just thinking about tomorrow."

She relaxed somewhat, but her frown remained. "We don't have to go."

"Yes we do, we've been over this. Just because it might be unpleasant doesn't mean we should avoid it. It's better to face it and deal with it so we can get back to having fun instead of having it niggle in the backs of our heads. I just shouldn't have been thinking about it right now. There's far too much fun to have between now and then, and I am _so_ looking forward to seeing you in your dress. And we still have to open presents!" He smiled at her, and her frown finally vanished.

"No, I know we should deal with them now, and I would honestly feel bad if I didn't at least visit them at Christmas."

"Which is what we decided the last time we talked about it." He kissed the back of her hand. "I will just focus on today, now, and you, and leave tomorrow to tomorrow." He plucked the grape from her hand and fed it to her.

She smiled back at him as she chewed and swallowed. "Good plan," She said as her eyes sparkled, "I can't wait to see your face when you open your gift."

"I just hope you like yours." He smiled back at her.

"That's it, I can't wait anymore. Come on, you're getting yours now!" She stood and dragged him to the Great Room and plopped him on the couch in front of their Christmas tree while he laughed. She handed him a gift wrapped in deep green paper and tied with a gold bow. it had some weight to it as well. He set the shoebox-sized gift on his lap and pointed to one under the tree.

"That one first! The one that looks like it's snowing. Yes, that one." He guided Hermione to it and grinned when she picked it up.

She looked thoughtful for a second, then grinned at him. "I have no idea what this could be." She beamed, then settled on the sofa and snuggled her side into his. "You first." She said.

"Alright." He chuckled and kissed the side of her head as he unwrapped his gift. Inside was a beautiful leather-bound book and a flat-topped box with a keyhole on the front. "Advanced Enchanting Techniques! Oh brilliant!" He read the cover of the book and threw his arms around Hermione to squeeze her. "Thank you so much! I can't wait to dive into that."

She grinned and kissed his cheek. "Glad you like it."

He opened the cover of the book and attached to the front cover was a small key. It came off in his hand when he pulled on it, and it fit the lock of the box when he tried it. His eyes went wide as he lifted the lid. Inside the box was a full set of professional-quality engraving tools. He ran his fingers across them and he could feel magic in them.

"Eversharp and Unbreakable, so you can Enchant your heart out, anything and everything." Hermione told him. "Happy Christmas, Harry."

He wrapped her in another hug and kissed her soundly. "Thank you, Hermione. This is completely brilliant." He said. His eyes shone into hers, and she knew she'd made the right choice.

"Good I'm glad you like it." She smiled happily.

"Your turn." He grinned.

She grinned back and unwrapped her gift to reveal a thin black board like a clipboard without the clip. The front cover only went three-quarters of the way up the board, so she could see the parchment beneath. Hermione immediately held it up to her nose and smelled it.

"Mmm. I love the smell of new parchment." She smiled at him.

'It's wrinkle-free and everfull," He grinned, "And ink from one specific quill is the only thing that won't just roll right off. You can also switch between sheet and scroll."

"You mean this is the only parchment I need to carry around now?" She looked shocked. "Wait, only one specific quill? Which quill?"

"Lift up the paper."

She opened the front cover and lifted up the twenty or so sheets of parchment attached to the board, and found a door in the wood of the clipboard. She opened it and saw there was a storage space inside, enough to store a couple of books or a pair of shoes. A jet black quill lay there with golden spine and nib and nibcover.

She looked up at him. "It's beautiful! Just like the ones we saw in -" She stopped as she realized he must have gotten it from Scrivenshaft's either that very day or soon after.

"I got that while you were looking at the parchments. Before you even pouted over it." He grinned smugly. "Self-filling and inking and unbreakable."

She laughed and hugged him tightly. "I love it! Thank you!"

"Happy Christmas, Hermione." He hugged her back just as enthusiastically.

"I can even keep the scented parchments you bought me in here. This is _brilliant_." She dashed off the sofa and up the stairs, and returned with what was left of her two sheaves of scented parchment. She tucked them into the storage panel of her writing board and lay the quill on top of them, then paused to smell the whole thing again before she closed the hidden door and the front cover. Then she set it aside with a warm, satisfied smile.

Just watching it made his insides warm, and he leaned over to kiss her cheek. There was no way he could have resisted. Hermione took it and smiled smugly as she snuggled into his side.

"Best Christmas Day Ever." She whispered from his chest.

"Best Christmas Day Ever." He agreed. He wrapped his arms around her and they just sat like that, smelling the pine of the tree, the scent of burning wood from the fire, and each other. As they held each other, Harry knew. He didn't need any introspection to figure it out, he _just knew_. Balls to bones, same as the sun would rise in the east tomorrow. It was a fact. He dropped his nose into her hair and breathed her in, and it put a smile in his chest.

"Hermione, I -" Harry stopped as he felt someone enter the wards.

Hermione bolted upright. "That can't be Luna already! What time is it?"

"It's one o'clock so yes, probably Luna." Harry replied.

Hermione looked up at him as they stood. "What were you going to say?" She asked.

"It'll keep, I'll tell you later." He smiled.

She frowned briefly in disappointment but let it go and grinned as they hurried to the foyer to open the front door.

Luna wandered up the walk and saw them in the doorway. "Hello!"

"Luna!" Hermione smiled and swept her into a hug. "Happy Christmas!"

"Hermione! Duncan!" Luna hugged Hermione back. "This is... Where are we?" She half-whispered.

"Welcome to MacFusty Manor." Harry winked at her.

"Oh." Luna beamed. "It's beautiful. I feel like I'm visiting royalty."

"Me too, and it's our house." Harry said with a grimace. Luna chuckled and hugged Harry. The wards registered two more intruders then, and Neville and Daphne came up the walk from the Apparation point holding hands. Daphne had a small satchel slung over one shoulder.

Harry waved as Luna let go of him. "Happy Christmas!"

Neville raised his free hand and waved. "Happy Christmas!" He called back with a grin. He shook Harry's hand when they had covered the distance to the house, and Neville then bowed to Hermione.

"Come on in, make yourselves at home." Harry grinned and bowed slightly to Daphne, who wore a shy smile rather than her habitual stony mask.

"Welcome." Hermione smiled to Daphne. "I'm glad you came."

"Me too." Luna added. "More fun."

"Thank you for inviting me." Daphne nodded back. "It was a pleasant surprise."

"You're welcome, Daphne." Hermione smiled as graciously as she could. She knew that Daphne had been after Harry like all the rest of the girls in school, so that made her a little territorial, despite the fact that she had obviously abandoned her pursuit in favor of Neville. Daphne had been somewhat relaxed with her and Luna when they had gone shopping for their dresses together, and surprisingly warm, but Daphne was still the third girl she'd spoken to at Hogwarts in as many years, so she still wasn't comfortable around her. She still wasn't even totally comfortable around Luna yet.

They trudged into the house, and Daphne immediately took stock of the place in a glance. Hermione watched her intelligent eyes appraise the place on several different criteria.

"You have a beautiful home." Daphne said when her appraisal was complete. It had only taken a second.

"Thanks." Harry smiled. "Welcome to MacFusty Manor. If you need anything just ask." He led them into the Great Room where the fire crackled next to the Christmas tree. "Can I get you some tea? Juice? A snack?"

"Dunc, relax. You're a good host already." Neville grinned. "We had lunch at Daphne's while I was talking to her father."

"Oh." Harry said noncomittally. He knew that Neville had planned to do so, but wasn't going to open that topic of conversation right then. He could see Hermione and Luna wanted to get upstairs to start getting ready. Why they needed so much time to do so he had no earthly clue, but it was what Hermione wanted. "Well then you lot take a quick seat and open your gifts before Luna and Hermione whisk Daphne upstairs."

"Gifts? But I -" Daphne frowned, and Hermione could see her kicking herself. She knew what that felt like.

"And there was no need to." Harry smiled. "Sorry for springing it on you, Heir Greengrass. We just got carried away with the spirit of the season."

Daphne's frown smoothed away some as she sat next to Neville on the sofa. "It's just Daphne please, Heir MacFusty."

"Duncan. Or just Dunc." Harry grinned back at her and handed gifts to her and Neville. "You too, Luna. You didn't think you were going to escape gift-free, did you First Friend?"

Luna's face broke into a smile and she skipped forward to take her gift from Harry before she sat on the sofa next to Daphne.

Neville put his gift on the floor in front of him, pulled a trunk from his pocket and enlarged it. He opened the top and pulled out a gift for Harry, Hermione, and Luna, then closed it and shrunk it again.

"You're not getting away gift free either, mate." Neville smiled as he handed them out.

"Nice trunk." Harry grinned at him. "Thanks, mate."

"I have a friend who has one like it that shrinks. He keeps banging on and on about it." Neville grinned back.

Harry laughed. "Wanker."

Neville just looked smug.

They all opened their gifts at once, though Luna was finished first, as Neville's gift to her didn't have any paper on it. She lifted the lid from the box and pulled out a long scarf in midnight blue with eagles at the ends, perched on bronze-coloured books.

She squealed a delighted "Yee!" and hopped off the sofa to hug Neville. "Three years I've wanted one of these! Thank you so much, Nev!" She wrapped it around her neck and rubbed her face on it. "I am going to wear you _everywhere_." She told it.

"Glad you like it Luna" Neville grinned back. "Please don't wear it in the shower. That would be weird."

Harry and Hermione chuckled.

"You're thinking about me wearing a scarf in the shower and you think _I'm_ weird?" Luna raised her eyebrows at him.

Even Daphne joined the laugh at Neville's blush.

"That's why I don't verbally spar with Luna anymore." Harry offered, "Don't feel bad, mate."

"This is beautiful!" Daphne half-whispered. "I'm overwhelmed by your generosity. Are you sure this is for me, you didn't get it mixed up with someone else's gift?"

Hermione looked at the gift in Daphne's lap and nodded at Harry.

"No, that's definitely yours." Harry said, "A little phoenix told us it would go nicely with your dress."

"No doubt it will. I'm stunned, thank you so much." Daphne turned pink in the cheeks as she looked gratefully to Harry and Hermione. Harry reached out and took Hermione's hand and smiled back.

"The smiles you've put on my brother's face are priceless, so think nothing of it." Harry said with a nod to Neville.

"I was unaware you're related." Daphne raised an eyebrow at Neville.

"It's honorary, not genetic." Neville said with a nod and a smile back at Harry.

"Oh." Daphne seemed like she was uncertain then, as though she were trying to work out the proper etiquette for friends who weren't family but considered each other so.

"Neville! Thank you so much!" Hermione exclaimed when she saw the title of the book he'd given her.

"You're planning a Mastery in Arithmancy as well?" Daphne asked Hermione, who nodded in return.

"Yes, we start studying for our first Masteries in September." Hermione replied absently. She was already lost in the pages.

"September?" Daphne asked as she turned slightly white.

"Because of the Tournament nonsense, we've been studying sixth and seventh year material. Well, _I've_ been studying sixth, Hermione's finished sixth year and helping me catch up to her. We figure if things continue as they have been we should finish seventh year in June. We'll revise for O.W.L.s next year while we forge ahead into Masteries." Harry explained.

"Study group is forging ahead for the rest of us and revising for them." Neville said, chagrined. "If I'd known I was going to be friends with these two, I'd have started earlier."

"You're welcome to join the Study Group if you like." Hermione offered.

"That's... I... I think I will, actually. Thank you again." Daphne seemed to smile genuinely at that.

"Thanks Nev! We'll study that this summer. Brilliant!" Harry lofted the copy of 'Wizengamot in a nutshell' he'd just unwrapped.

"I figured you might want something to read when Hermione gets tired of you." Neville grinned.

Harry chuckled, and Hermione blushed while studiously avoiding gazes.

"That blush has a story behind it." Luna declared. "Soon as we get upstairs..." She looked pointedly at Hermione, who blushed harder and didn't look at her.

"Brilliant, I needed a new belt, thanks you two!" Neville said as he finished unwrapping his gift.

"Welcome, Nev. That one took us _hours_ to do." Harry grinned at him.

"To do?"

"When you rotate the buckle, it changes the belt style so it'll fit with any kind of outfit. We had to practice on mine before we could add the warming runes to it safely. I liked it so much I bought myself one. Thankfully we didn't ruin it figuring out the enchantment." Harry grinned and showed Neville the belt he was wearing.

"It's several belts in one _and_ it'll keep me warm? That's genius, thank you even more."

Luna left the sofa and threw her arms around Hermione, then turned and squeezed the hearts out of Harry too.

"It's beautiful, thank you both." She held the necklace out to Harry and swept her hair aside when he took it so he could put it on her. The tiny dragon with wings outstretched hung from its platinum chain just below her collarbones. "What's it made of?"

Hermione smiled at her. "Moonstone, of course."

"It's warm too."

"The necklaces were easy, they didn't have any prior enchantments on them." Harry said as he unwrapped his gift from her. "Aww, you saw me looking at this in Flourish and Blotts!" Harry jumped up and hugged Luna again. "Thanks, Luna. More study material!" He grinned.

"Which one is that?" Hermione asked.

"Wards for a lifetime." He replied.

"Ooo. Nice choice." She smiled at Luna. "Better read fast." She winked at Harry.

"Unless we keep this one for reading together while snuggling."

"Also a possibility." Hermione finished unwrapping Luna's gift after she finally put down the Arithmancy book. It was a framed picture of her and Harry by the lake with the sun rising between them as they looked at each other. She pursed her lips together and hugged Luna again.

"That's wonderful, Luna. Thank you so much. When was that?" She rose and placed the picture on the mantel above the fire.

"Wow you look fantastic, Hermione." Harry said as he looked at it.

"It was a couple weeks ago during training. I convinced Colin to let me borrow his camera." Luna answered with a proud smile.

"Thanks for the Honeydukes, Luna." Neville grinned at her. "That might last almost a week."

"I got more to share after morning trainings too." Luna smiled back.

"You're a chocolate fiend, Luna." Neville laughed.

"Takes one to know one, Neville." She stuck her tongue out at him.

Neville laughed. "Touche."

"Now I think we should start getting ready. Daphne and Hermione don't need any time at all to make themselves beautiful, but I do." Luna said as she stood with a glance at the grandfather clock.

"Hah!" Hermione scoffed. "Why do you think I wanted as much time as possible?" She got up and kissed Harry's head. "See you in a bit."

"Looking forward to it." He smiled at her.

Daphne rose as well and cast a trepidatious glance at Neville, who smiled serenely and nodded slightly, and just for a second wore the same commanding expression he had in Madam Puddifoot's. Daphne smiled slightly back at him, and followed Hermione and Luna up the stairs.

Harry turned to Neville when the girls had disappeared from view.

"Okay, so?" He asked expectantly.

"So?" Neville frowned as he wondered what his brother was getting at.

"You and Daphne's father. Official now?"

"Oh!" Neville grinned. "Yeah, officially courting now."

Harry punched his shoulder lightly and grinned back. "Congratulations. Dream come true?"

"More than one. Literally."

Harry laughed. "Bordering on things I don't want to know, Nev. Brilliant, glad you're happy. You look good together. I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of her then?"

"Well, Study Group definitely. She's really stuck in Slytherin though. She can't show any kind of weakness or desire to leave them or they'll turn on her and that would be ugly."

"Actually..." Harry switched seats and sat next to Neville. "I had a thought about that. She can't come and sit with us because of that, they'll think she's betraying them or whatever nonsense. The opposite isn't necessarily true though. If she takes a couple of weeks when we're back and lets her house know that she's trying to cultivate us as contacts or whatever, then we can gradually go sit with her. She'll still have to maintain her stoneface in public, but we're smart enough to make it look like she's got us eating out of the palm of her hand, sociopolitically speaking."

Neville brightened. "Yeah, that could work. It would have to be gradual, but after a while even her own House wouldn't question why we're always together. I'll talk to her about it tonight while we're dancing. Thanks for that, brother. That means a lot."

"We're family, Nev. Real family, not just Gryffindor family. I want to see you happy too."

"I appreciate that, Dunc. I'd say the same, but you're obviously giddy over Hermione already."

Harry nodded. "More and more every day."

"I'm looking forward to being that way with Daphne. We really just started though."

"Exciting though, isn't it?" Harry grinned.

"Completely." Neville agreed.

"Speaking of exciting, what do you want to do for three hours while they're doing whatever it is they're doing?"

"I haven't done any training today, you up for that?"

"Brilliant." Harry smiled.

  
  


  
  



	12. Chapter 12

  
  


"You can do this." She told herself silently. "It's just the prettiest, second-smartest girl in the whole of Britain who was also incidentally after your husband. Just relax and be casual." She sighed, and massaged shampoo into her hair. The Sleekeasy mixed into it meant it didn't foam as much, but she knew it would cover all her hair regardless. She owed it to Luna, the stuff worked. It might have even worked on her hair pre-change.

She'd already gone through Daphne's plusses and minuses before she told Harry she could deal with having Daphne in the house, and logically that was still valid. Now that Daphne was there though, she felt surly and snarly about the whole thing. She knew Daphne must be feeling the same sort of way, as she'd already looked at it from her perspective. Being with Neville opened doors Daphne would never have been in front of before. Harry was easily the most popular boy in school, the most powerful boy in school, and he was tight with Neville. On the other hand, she was in an unknown place with people she hardly knew and might have even denigrated not long ago. That part was unknown to Hermione, but she and Luna were the _least_ popular girls in school, so it was a safe bet.

How did Daphne feel about Luna and her? No clue. She would just proceed as though Daphne were a normal girl and nervous about being in a new place with new people, and she would be as welcoming and nice as possible. That was what she would want if she were in Daphne's shoes.

Logically, it made sense. Unfortunately she still had flashbacks of standing in front of an unused classroom door, on fire with jealousy that Duncan might be snogging Daphne behind it.

She shook her head as she rinsed the potioned shampoo out of her hair. "Get a grip, Hermione." She whispered. "Duncan is your husband. He acts like you make him happy. You certainly made him happy this morning."

She used her favourite scented soap to clean herself while she rambled. "If she still has designs on him, you can breathe on her later. For now, act like she's a potential friend and be as nice as you can. You know what catty backbiting feels like, just wait until she does it or doesn't. You're nobody's whipping girl anymore. You have the knowledge and the strength to be whoever you want to be. Besides, in six months you won't be going to Hogwarts anymore anyway."

She rinsed herself thoroughly and turned the water off, then wrapped her hair up in one towel and used a drying charm while Resonating to dry her body.

Then she turned her eyes to The Underwear.

"How did I let Luna talk me into you?" She asked it quietly. There was almost enough material there to fill a thimble.

The lace was very soft and silky, with embroidered appliques in strategic places, but there was _very_ little to it. The knickers had required her to remove almost all of her hair in order to look good, and that had been painful and time consuming. She sighed and picked up the almost non-existent knickers and turned them this way and that before she worked out which was the back and which the front.

They felt weird. She'd had her underwear bunch up between her cheeks before of course, everyone had, but you discreetly pulled it out again. These were _supposed_ to be between your cheeks, and it felt... weird.

After what Harry had done to her last night it wasn't entirely unpleasant, but it would definitely take some getting used to. Besides, they were mostly for his benefit anyway. She focused on the face he would make when she revealed it to him, and it took her mind off feeling like she needed to adjust.

The bra actually fit, and was similarly soft and silky, but again she wasn't used to wearing underwear you could mostly _see through_.

"Better appreciate this..." She growled. "Doing stupid things for a _boy_..."

She exited the bathroom and rejoined Luna and Daphne in the powder room, both dressed in fluffy white bathrobes while they dried.

She'd forgotten to put the bathrobe on.

Luna's eyes flitted over her body and her cheeks turned pink. Daphne looked her up and down, then stared intently at her chest. She felt like she needed to cover herself, but she consciously made her arms stay at her sides. If they had something embarrassing to say, then so be it.

"That's not fair." Daphne said finally, and looked at Luna. "Did you know about this?"

"The underwear or what's in it?" Luna countered.

"Both." Daphne huffed. "Not bad enough there's no discernible bilateral difference, but you look like _that_ , fresh out of the shower with no makeup, in Rigby and Peller, no less. Completely unfair. I suppose it's a good thing I'm not after Duncan anymore, I'd have no chance."

"Nobody has a chance, they're married. I agree about being jealous though." Luna smiled at Hermione.

"I... but you... me? Really?" Hermione struggled to process what was going on.

Luna giggled at her.

"What do you mean _married_?" Daphne asked Luna.

"She's Missus Duncan MacFusty. They're married." Luna replied.

"How? That isn't possible while they're minors." Daphne frowned.

"It's true." Hermione said, "The explanation involves family secrets that I don't know you well enough to share yet. No offence intended."

"Oh. None taken." Daphne nodded. "While I can understand and respect family secrets... I hate not knowing."

"You'll have to hang around with us more then, and get to know us. I'd have no problem telling someone I trust." Hermione flashed a timid smile.

"You... _want_ me to hang out with you?" Daphne raised her eyebrows.

"I might have changed my appearance some, but I can still count my friends on one hand, Daphne - and that includes a House Elf and a bird. Duncan and Luna are wonderful -" She smiled warmly at Luna, "But they're only two people. I don't really know Neville very well yet either, even if Duncan does trust him."

"I..." Daphne tried to say something, but it stuck in her throat. Her face went slack as her icy mask fell into place, and then evaporated again. She oscillated between stone and speaking several times before she seemed able to banish her mask. Her fist clenched and she breathed deeply. "I know how you feel." She whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm trying not to slip into trance, but..."

Luna got up from her seat in front of one of the vanity mirrors, crossed the few steps to where Daphne stood, and slowly enfolded her in a hug.

"It's okay." Luna said softly. "We don't expect anything from you. We're just happy you're here. You can relax if you want to."

Hermione took a few steps closer as well and gently touched her shoulder. "If you can't tell us yet, that's okay. There's no pressure here. It's just Luna and me, and I'm standing in front of a stranger in brand new expensive underwear that goes right up my bum. I feel so uncomfortable it's ridiculous."

Daphne's face contorted as she tried not to laugh, but a giggle escaped.

Luna leaned away from Daphne and looked at Hermione's behind. "It does, too. I'm jealous of both your bums." She reached out and squeezed Hermione's left cheek.

Hermione levelled a flat-browed gaze at her. "Was that really necessary?"

Luna just grinned at her. "Feels like Duncan's, but girlier."

"Excuse me? When were you feeling my Duncan's behind?!" Hermione turned on Luna, instincts flared.

"When we were hiding behind the door in the dark, waiting to shout 'happy birthday'."

Hermione's rising rage stopped cold and sank back down to where it slept. "Oh. I’d forgotten. That's another first you beat me to, dammit." She pursed her lips and frowned.

"You know what it feels like now though." Luna never stopped grinning.

Hermione started to blush. "Of course."

"Aha! Now tell me what that blush downstairs was about! It was about naked things, wasn't it? I'd bet my Dark Witchyness it's naked things."

Hermione turned bright pink and strode to one of the vanity mirrors and sat down.

"I knew it!" Luna pointed a finger at her triumphantly. "Tell us everything!"

"What?" Hermione looked shocked. "No!"

"Aww, come on. You and Daphne are gorgeous, you can have naked things anytime you want. It'll be years for me yet. Did he get naked first or did you?"

Hermione discovered a tiny part of her was dying to talk about it, to crow her experience from the highest tower. That tiny part was far outweighed by the voice of reason and experience. It told her that telling private, intimate details was a surefire way to go straight to ridicule, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars.

Daphne sat down at the vanity next to her. "Naked things?" She asked in a small voice. Hermione turned to look, and Daphne's eyes were wide - not with disbelief or shock, but curiosity. "What are naked things?" She asked.

"Like when you close your curtains and pretend your hand is a boy." Luna said blithely.

Daphne leaned forward, her eyes huge as she went scarlet from her chin to her hair, and she looked alternately between Luna and Hermione. "You do that too?" She whispered in a shocked tone, "I thought I was the only... I thought I'm... defective."

Hermione thought there was no way that a pureblood princess as obviously intelligent as Daphne could possibly have so little information, but apparently sexual education simply wasn't a thing in the Wizarding world.

"No, you're perfectly normal!" She asserted. "Everyone does it. I've heard Parkinson tell Bulstrode she - and I quote - 'damn near pulled my pussy off I was going so hard'."

Daphne's nose wrinkled as the thought of Parkinson masturbating entered her mind. "Ew." She said.

"Yes it's not a happy image, but it proves the point that you're not alone or defective. Every girl does it. Every boy does it. It's part of your body becoming adult and getting you ready to have children."

Still scarlet and breathing heavily, Daphne frowned at her. "Where do you get your information? I hate that you know so much more than I do. About everything, apparently."

"I'll be visiting my parents tomorrow, I could bring you the books I read if you like." Hermione offered.

"And you can come talk to me or Hermione anytime you want," Luna added, "I don't have any experience with boys yet, but I'll share what I know as long as it doesn't end up all over school."

"I would never." Daphne said defensively. "I don't even talk to people at school if it isn't absolutely necessary. I don't -" She stopped.

Hermione noticed something about Daphne then as she ran through all the times she'd ever seen Daphne at school. "You don't have any real friends, do you?" She asked softly.

"What about Davis?" Luna asked, "She's always next to you."

Daphne looked Hermione in the eyes and shook her head slightly while she pursed her lips. "Tracey is my cousin. She's more like family watchdog than friend. I'm... a family asset."

"A family _asset_?" Hermione asked sharply.

"I'm the best chance father has to improve the standing of the family because of my face." Daphne said plainly. She didn't inject any happiness or bitterness to her voice, it was simply a fact. It was her reality. "Neville is an unexpectedly advantageous match, that's why father agreed to let him court me."

"How do _you_ feel about it? About Neville?" Hermione asked as she ground her teeth and chewed back the urge to curse her father for treating her like chattel.

"I'm... surprised by him. He's soft and comforting obviously, but he's smart too. Cunning and savvy. Add into that he knows he will be a leader, and his naturally commanding presence..." She paused and shivered slightly. "He's not Duncan, but I think I'm pretty lucky. Now that I know you and Duncan are married, I think he's definitely the best choice."

"How do you _feel_ about him though?" Luna asked, her head cocked to one side.

"I -" Daphne stopped as the answer on her lips died. "He makes me... Sometimes when he looks at me, I feel it in my stomach, here." She put her hand over her stomach below her navel.

"Sort of quivery, tingly, hollow sensation?" Hermione asked.

"Yes!" She sat forward on her chair. "You know what it is."

"You get sort of excited after that for no real reason? Like you really want to do something and you don't know what it is?"

"Yes! How do you know all this?" Daphne frowned. Hermione could tell she was upset by someone else knowing her body better than she did. Hermione would have been as well, in her shoes.

"That's arousal. It means you're sexually excited. I usually have to change knickers after that."

Daphne nodded. "Yes! Me too. That makes sense. I hadn't made the connection, but now that you've said it, that manic energy does go away after..." She trailed off and blushed again.

"Which conveniently leads us back to naked activities." Luna looked pointedly at Hermione. "Naaaayyyked things." She waggled her eyebrows and grinned.

"At least tell... Did you... I call it getting the quivers, I don't know if there's a word?"

"Orgasm. You could also call it a climax." Hermione said with a sigh as she rolled her eyes at Luna. "Yes, five of them one after another. I've never... It was very satisfying."

" _FIVE_?!" Daphne exclaimed. "I had no idea we could keep going..."

"Most I ever did was two, because both my arms were tired." Luna said, amazed. "How did you manage it?"

"I didn't..." Hermione had to look away as heat rushed up her cheeks. "Duncan did."

"He has thick, strong fingers." Luna said softly as she breathed more heavily.

Hermione shook her head. "He does, but he did it... with his mouth."

Daphne and Luna both just sat quietly as those words played images in their heads.

"That's so..." Daphne whispered as her thighs rubbed against each other. "How did you get him to...?"

"I didn't. He's... passionate." Hermione breathed heavily and clenched her cheeks together as the memory of it flooded her mind. The underwear pressed against her sensitive skin didn't help while she remembered his tongue.

"I've spent my whole life being jealous of other girls because they were free." Daphne whispered as she blushed and looked at the floor. "This is the first time I've been jealous of a girl over a boy."

"I've been jealous of you since I got to Hogwarts because you're beautiful and everyone wants you.” Hermione replied. “I always thought you were just waiting for a boy to be good enough to deserve you, and that made me even more jealous. There was a time before Duncan and I really met that I thought you and he were secretly snogging."

Daphne looked up at her, and for the first time Hermione could see a Daphne inside Daphne. Her eyes shone with pain and longing and a hint of mirth. "Really?" She asked.

Hermione nodded. "I remember being very conflicted about it. I hated the thought of him snogging anyone else, but at the same time if it was you at least I could respect that choice. You're beautiful, intelligent, and capable. I hated the thought of it being anyone else more."

"Hey!" Luna frowned. "What am I, chopped nargle?"

Hermione smiled and hugged Luna. "No, of course not. If it had been you at all, he wouldn't have hidden it. He was acting furtive, like he didn't want anyone to find out what he was up to. I knew it couldn't have been you because everyone would have known already. He would have been proud of it."

"Oh. That's fair, I suppose." Luna hugged her back. "You know I like you, Hermione, and I love how you and Duncan are together, but that doesn't mean I'm not a little jealous too."

"Well we're even then, because I'll always be a little jealous of you. You went to sit with him first, you were the first club member, his first non-family hug, and you touched his bum first. You'll always be his First Friend. You're my first girl friend as well though, so I can't exactly complain."

Luna smiled happily to herself at the memories.

"Club? Is that the poetry club?" Daphne asked.

"Yes, it wasn't really a club until Hermione joined though." Luna said.

"What... If it isn't too personal... what was your poetry?" Daphne asked. "Luna showed us her patch in the library last month, I'm just curious."

"I didn't know that." Hermione said as she looked at Luna. Luna shrugged in return. "I'll grab my bag and show you in a bit."

"It hadn't come up, that's all. It's not like I was hiding it. Fleur and Arielle and some of the other french girls were very upset at how you had been treated. I imagine they'll be happy to know you're considering their school for next year."

"You're what?" Daphne asked, suddenly tense.

"Hogwarts is a shit show." Hermione said, "Duncan and I are going to finish our schooling abroad. Haven’t you thought about it? I can't imagine you're having fun in Slytherin."

Daphne's eyes filled with pain. "I can't... My family would never..." She shook her head. "I won't be free until I'm married, and even then that's only if I marry Neville. I shudder to think what kind of chains Father would have married me into if not for him."

Hermione felt a stab of recognition at that. They were flip sides of the same coin. Hermione had been utterly undervalued, and had the freedom to learn because of it. Because she was ugly, nobody cared what she did or who she talked to or what she learned. Daphne had been excessively valued and trapped like a bird in a cage because of it, fed scraps of information meant to improve her worth to a buyer. Groomed and presented and jealously hoarded. All she wanted was to be who she was, and it was the one thing they would never allow.

"We're opposites, you and I," She told Daphne, "But the same. Your family traps you and keeps you - mine abandoned and ignored me. Neither of us deserved it. All we really want is to learn what we want to learn, be who we want to be. To be free. You can't be free because your family won't let you, because they taught you that you belong to them. I couldn't before Duncan because everyone hated me."

Daphne's mouth frowned as her chin scrunched up and her eyes began to water, and like a switch being flipped, her mask dropped into place and all traces of the burgeoning tears were erased.

"Sorry." Daphne said coldly. "I'm not allowed to cry. Crying is unattractive."

You poor thing, Hermione thought, they've taken yourself away from you. That was unacceptable, she decided then. Daphne's freedom to cry and love and be loved took up an official slot on her internal To Do list.

She got up from where she sat and pulled Daphne off her chair into a hug.

"Whatever they've done to you to make you incapable of crying is _wrong_ , Daphne. It's horrible and evil and you didn't deserve it. You belong to Daphne and no-one else." She whispered into her ear. "I know what kind of pain you live in. Duncan gave me my first hug this year. Before that I was where you are. Crying is _not_ unattractive, it's _necessary_. I will be your friend if you let me, Daphne. You can always cry here. Luna and I will only ever care for Daphne, not your sale value."

Hermione turned slightly and held an arm out to Luna, who smiled and joined the hug. They could feel Daphne start to shake and she breathed deeply. Her mask never faltered, but tears streamed down her cheeks regardless.

"I don't -" Daphne spat words as though she sobbed and her diaphragm flip-flopped. "I don't - understand how - you can both - be so - kind to me." She sniffed and breathed deeply in and out, "I've done - nothing to - earn this ki - earn this kind of - I don't - I don't deserve -"

"This is just who we are. You're free to think what you like of course, but I know what it's like to have no-one to talk to, Daphne. I won't pretend to know you or your family or what you've endured, but I do know what it's like to be friendless." Hermione smiled at her. "Duncan and Luna saved me from that, even when I tried to push them away. It would feel like I was betraying them if I didn't pass on what they gave me."

"I didn't have any friends before Hogwarts either. Making friends is the best." Luna grinned at Daphne.

Daphne hugged them both tightly and then let them go so she could dry her face on the collar of the bathrobe. Her mask slipped away as she did, as though she physically rubbed it off her face with the terrycloth.

"I was so nervous when Neville said we were coming here." She admitted. "I half expected to hide behind my mask and say as little as possible, like with everywhere else. Thank you both for being yourselves. I'll try to be a good friend, but I really don't know how. One more thing I'll have to learn from you."

"Well then lesson number one - there's no etiquette to follow. I've read as many books on being a friend as I could find over holidays so far, but they all say the same thing in the end. It's about genuinely caring for the other person. It was very unhelpful."

"Just be yourself." Luna smiled and hugged Daphne again before she sat at one of the vanity mirrors and pulled out her wand.

"I honestly don't know how to be a good friend either, Daphne. Luna says she doesn't know either, but I've learned mostly from Duncan and her, and only in the last couple of months." Hermione dropped into her chair and then shot up again. "Stupid underwear." She sat back down again more gently. "I'm pretty sure I still don't know, so I guess we can learn together."

Luna smiled at them both and waved her wand at Daphne. The towel unwrapped from her hair and floated to a hook on the wall. "We can start with doing each other's hair. I miss my mum doing my hair every morning, I used to love that."

"Me too." Daphne smiled back.

Hermione just tried to smile supportively. Her mother had never done her hair, but her husband had. It didn't stop the flare of jealousy from stinging her eyes.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Without Neville and Sirius's help, Harry would have been lost. They had taken two hours while they'd been shopping to stop and show him how to _wear_ the ascott with the high-collared shirt and vest. It was one thing to buy the clothes and know they were stylish, it was quite another to know how to put them on. Even with their help and a mirror, it took him nearly half an hour to review his memories and get the thing to look good.

Hard part complete, he bound his hair loosely at the back with the silver clip Darcy had given him for his thirteenth birthday. He checked the mirror to see it was centered, then gave a satisfied nod. He finished his suit with the fancy dress robes, but he still thought they looked more like a short suit jacket with long tails in the back rather than robes.

All in all, he felt somewhat spiffy as he examined the finished result. He wouldn't have cared really, but he made a promise, and had done his best to keep it. Really though, Hermione liked his suit and that's what mattered most.

He joined Neville at the bottom of the stairs to wait patiently for the women. It was no surprise Neville had finished first as he had years more experience in dressing snazzily for classy events, even if he'd hated them previously.

"Looking good, little brother." Neville raised his glass to Harry when he arrived.

"Thanks, Nev." Harry replied as he picked up a glass of juice himself. "I'd be sunk without you and Sirius, thanks again for your help."

"Anything anytime, mate." Neville smiled back.

"Looking pretty dapper yourself." Harry raised his glass back at Nev.

"Thanks." Nev grinned. "I just hope Daphne thinks so."

"Nervous?"

"Terrified." Neville sipped his juice and took a deep breath.

Harry chuckled. "It doesn't show, so whatever you're doing, keep it up."

Neville flashed a grin. "Hooray for Occlumency. Thank _you_ for getting me into it. How about you?"

"Same. Somehow dressing up for it makes it a much bigger deal than it was in my head."

Neville laughed. "Yeah, that's it exactly."

Lammy appeared next to Harry then, without even a hint of sound. She was dressed in all black, in a form-fitting outfit with cloth wrapped around her head so that it only showed her eyes. A camera hung from her neck.

"Phase one complete, Sir." She gave a smart salute. "Proceeding to Phase two."

Harry saluted her back. "Excellent work. How are your troops?"

"Fully briefed and awaiting deployment, Sir."

Harry grinned at Lammy. "Brilliant. Carry on, Ninja Mistress. Thanks for doing this, Lammy."

"Very good, Sir. You're welcome, I can't wait to see them later either." Her eyes squinted a little, and Harry realized she was smiling under the mask as she faded from sight.

"What's _that_ about?" Neville looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Lammy, Brolly, Zolly, Wolly, Krolly, and Nolly are being stealth photographers tonight. If Hermione doesn't know her picture is being taken, she won't get self-conscious. One of them will focus on us tonight, and the rest will just be out in the crowd because we won't be able to see everything that goes on as it happens."

"Oh. That is actually brilliant. I'm sad I didn't think of it. I'd like copies of any Daphne is in, if you don't mind."

"Already planned, big brother." Harry grinned at him. "This is the only Yule Ball any of us will get while we're at school. Might be the only one Hermione and I get ever."

"Still planning on leaving at the end of term?" Neville asked sadly.

"Yep. You and Daphne are both welcome to come, too. Only reason I haven't gone and paid tuition already is Hermione hasn't decided which place she wants to go yet. I said we should take a day each weekend and go visit each prospective school, see what the environment is like with students actually in it. Hermione liked that, so that will probably be this month's Saturdays. You're both welcome to come for that too."

"I'd love to honestly, but my Gran -" Neville started to demure.

"Would go mental if she knew what was really going on at Hogwarts, and you know it." Harry said flatly. "The only reason you haven't told her is because you know she'd jerk you out of there."

Neville sighed. "Stop being so bloody smart."

"What's the real reason you want to stay at Hogwarts?"

Neville got a far-away, sad look in his eyes but as he opened his mouth to answer, the door to the upstairs powder room opened. Luna stepped out and closed the door behind her, and carefully lifted the front of her dress to walk down the stairs without tripping.

"Luna! You look _fantastic_!" Harry said with a bright grin. He couldn't tell if it was the sparkly silver-sequined dress or her hair in a crown of braids with a cascade of ringlets at the back, but the overall effect was outstanding.

Luna's face split into a huge smile and she beamed at the two of them. Harry thought whoever captured her heart would be one lucky man. She was radiant.

"Thank you, first friend." She reached the bottom of the stairs and hugged Harry, careful to keep her face away from him. "You both look rather smashing as well."

"You outshine your namesake, Luna. Positively stellar." Neville said when he'd recovered.

She hugged him too then, and hooked one arm through Neville's and Harry's, and stood with a happy smile next to them to wait for Daphne and Hermione. "Daphne will be next, Hermione was helping her with last-minute touch-ups when I came down." She told them.

"Thanks Luna. Excited?" Harry asked. He didn't know how he knew, but he had figured Hermione would be last to be ready.

"I am, actually." Luna answered. "I think it's going to be a fun night."

"I hope so. I'm half-afraid of more Hogwarts nonsense, like there's going to be a pack of Cerberi or a herd of Erumpents or something." Harry admitted.

Luna giggled a tinkling, silver little laugh. "That would be even more fun."

The door opened again and Daphne appeared.

"Merlin's Mercy." Neville whispered as his eyes widened.

Daphne, like Luna, carefully lifted the front of her dress to not trip. She glided down the stairs, and even Harry had to admit she was stunning. Her hair was wavy instead of it's usual straight, and flowed backward from her hairline like a turbulent stream of honey gold that crashed over her bare shoulders. The sapphire teardrop hung perfectly between her clavicle and her neckline, a deep royal blue to contrast the light ice blue of her dress.

"For freedom she flies, swifter than the lightfoot wind, yet her loveliness thwarts her desire." Harry remarked quietly.

"Excuse me?" Daphne smiled confusedly at him when she reached the bottom of the stairs. That snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Ah, sorry. It's from mythology. There was a nymph named Daphne who just wanted to be free to do as she liked, but one of the Greek gods, I don't remember which one, lusted after her and chased her relentlessly until one of the other gods took pity on her and turned her into a tree." Harry grinned to cover how foolish he felt.

"I know exactly how he felt." Neville whispered. "You look _amazing_ , Daphne." Neville blushed and took deep breaths. He'd never seen her so relaxed, so utterly resplendent, or so _happy_. She looked _happy_. Neville could not recall that look on her face. Not ever.

She blushed and took his other arm in hers. "Thank you, Neville." She said aloud, and then whispered into his ear so only he could hear. "The way you look right now makes me purr."

He leaned over and kissed her lightly where her neck met her shoulder, and that caused her to shiver all over. "I can't believe this is really happening." He whispered back to her. "I love my life."

Daphne blushed a light pink over her cheekbones and held his arm tighter.

Hermione closed the powder room door behind her as she exited. Harry heard the door close and looked up at her as she descended the stairs.

She saw his smile drop from his face as his eyes locked on her. His jaw went slack and his eyes grew large as he leaned forward slightly. The arm that Luna hung onto went limp, and he stayed like that as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"You look amazing too, Hermione. Three gorgeous witches, I don't think my heart can take the strain." Neville smiled at her.

"Thanks, Nev, that's very gracious of you." She smiled back at him.

Luna poked Harry's shoulder, and he snapped out of his stupor.

"I- Uh! You... Hermione..." He tried to swallow, but his mouth was suddenly a desert. "You... just... There are no words. _So beautiful_..." He whispered the last two words, filled with awe.

Hermione smiled at him, and everything he'd been taught about how to behave in polite company vanished from his head. All Maisie’s lessons on poise, self-confidence, and etiquette all evaporated like water on a griddle.

She took his other arm and kissed his cheek. "That made it worthwhile, thank you Duncan." She said softly.

He smiled at her and nodded dumbly, then he noticed everyone was staring at him.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat and took a deep breath and came back to himself enough to blush with embarrassment. "Sorry. You look _magnificent_." He kissed Hermione's cheek.

"Shall we go then?" Neville asked. "I imagine poor Wayne Hopkins is going mad with anticipation about now." He grinned at Luna.

"He'd better be." Luna grinned back, then turned on her heel and stalked toward the front door.

"All three of you look better than our poor mortal minds can comprehend. Poor Wayne won't know up from down in ten minutes." Harry said with a sigh.

Hermione held Luna's shoulder while she Resonated, and they both Disapparated with a soft sucking sound. Harry offered a hand to Daphne and Neville as he began to Resonate. Neville grabbed his hand immediately, and Daphne with more deliberation. The inexplicable pressure of Apparation followed, and they stood next to Luna and Hermione at the Hogwarts front gates.

Harry's fingers interlaced with Hermione's as they all walked toward the castle. Professor McGonagall waited for them as they walked into the Entrance Hall.

"Mister MacFusty, finally. This way please, the other Champions are waiting." She set off at a brisk pace. Harry and Hermione were both taller than she was, so they had little trouble keeping up. She led them around the Great Hall to a side chamber off the Great hall that they'd never been in before. Already inside and waiting on them were Fleur, Cedric, Viktor, and a fifth-year Gryffindor girl named Katie Bell, who was obviously Viktor's date.

"Duncan! 'Ermione!" Fleur smiled and greeted them when they entered.

"Five minutes, you'll be able to hear yourselves being announced, just enter the Great Hall in order, if you please." McGonagall said crisply, before she turned and closed the door behind her.

Fleur held Hermione at arms' length and looked her over, then hugged her again. "Ca te va incroyable! Je suis tellement jaloux!"

"Ha!" Hermione smiled back, "Dit la plus belle sorciere! _Je suis_ tellement jaloux!"

Fleur laughed. "Merci pour ca, but I sink Duncan would agree wees me, non?"

"Absolutement." Duncan said immediately.

"Biased." Hermione accused him, but smiled at him as she did.

"Happily." He agreed, then turned to Cedric and Viktor. "Evening, Cedric. Evening, Viktor." He bowed to Katie. "Evening, Miss Bell."

Cedric and Viktor both shook his hand, and Katie smiled at him. "I'm surprised you know my name, honestly." She said.

"I would be remiss if I didn't know the names of all my House members." Harry replied.

Fleur and Hermione whispered together in French in the background, just low enough he couldn't hear. He was tempted to boost his hearing, but decided against it since if Hermione was whispering so that he couldn't hear in the first place then the conversation wasn't meant for him. She'd tell him later, or not.

"I just found it impressive because I've never seen you in the common room at all." Katie stared into his eyes.

"That's a good thing. I don't mix well with certain people." Harry smiled politely, but it wasn't a warm smile.

"I've noticed." Katie smiled back, and it was a warm smile. Harry took note of the fact that she wasn't put off by his actions against Weasley. Maybe she'd been fed up with him too.

The Headmaster's voice - magically loud - came through the closed door then. "Witches and Wizards of Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons, as well as our honoured visitors, it is my pleasure to announce your Champions! In first place, Viktor Krum!"

Viktor held his elbow out for Katie to take, and she did just as the door opened to admit them to the Great Hall.

"In second and third place, Cedric Diggory and Fleur Delacour!" Fleur rushed to grab Cedric's arm as Hermione hooked her arm through his, and Cedric and Fleur walked out in the Great Hall as they smiled and waved to the crowd.

"And finally, in last place, Duncan MacFusty." The Headmaster's voice lost a lot of its exuberance, as though he had added ‘oh, yes and I have a hangnail on my big toe’.

"Headbastard." Hermione whispered as they walked out of the side room and into the Great Hall. The Great Hall was decorated and spelled to resemble a winter wonderland, with snowy pine trees, park benches, white tables, and snow that fell from the magical ceiling.

"At least the Great Hall has never looked better. This is beautiful." Hermione whispered to him when the cheering had died down.

"Makes me want to stoke the fire and snuggle up to you on the sofa." He whispered back.

They took their places at the Champion's table, and Harry sat on the end so Hermione could sit next to Fleur and continue their conversation. Harry spotted Neville and Daphne at a nearby table and waved to them. He had to admit they looked fantastic together.

He spotted Luna and Wayne not long after, sitting toward the front of the Great Hall next to one of the snowy pine trees. They were busy talking though and didn't see him wave.

The menus appeared in front of them then, and Harry decided on the Lamb with vegetables. He'd never had lamb before.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Even the setting was perfect, Pansy decided. Not only was the decor cold, so was the dish full of revenge on her menu. She fingered the stoppered vial in her waistpouch and stole another glance at Lovegood and her soppy, hapless date. She had to admit, Lovegood had cleaned up a lot better than she'd expected. She had to give her a modicum of respect for that, but her choice of dates left her sanity in question regardless. Not that her own was any better, but that was honestly her own fault, even if she did blame Draco for it. When he had found out she had been sniffing after MacFusty, he'd turned his back on her immediately. She'd known he would, of course, which was why she had kept it from him as long as possible. Then he'd gone and asked Greengrass's little sister to the ball just to spite her, the prick.

She looked over at her own date and suppressed a grimace. It had seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now he just looked so... _excited_. Like a puppy finally allowed to play in the yard with other dogs. She supposed he was attractive enough - thin and blonde, real blonde, but without the nasty grease Draco always used in his hair. It didn't matter though, she still hated him. She hated him for being poor and she hated him for being a mudblood, but most of all she hated him for being the only one who'd asked her.

They ordered meals and ate. They made small talk as they did, - though it was a chore to get him to shut up as often as not - and all the while she watched Lovegood and her date surreptitiously as she waited for her opportunity. It was annoyingly tricky to levitate an object while keeping it invisible, but she'd practiced it for weeks. It was still difficult, but she could do it.

A click-whirr sound came from her right side, and she looked back at her date.

"Sorry," He apologized, "You just looked so beautiful lost in thought like that, I couldn't help it." He smiled tenuously and hid the camera below the table again. "Everyone says it's annoying to take pictures all the - Sorry." He bit his lip and gave her puppydog eyes.

He thought she was _beautiful_?

She saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned her head in time to see Lovegood leave her date at the table. Go time.

"You really think I'm beautiful, Connor?" She asked him.

"Colin. Yeah, I do." He smiled.

She reached out and grabbed a fistful of his robes and pulled him into her waiting lips. Surprisingly, his fingers found the nape of her neck and his lips responded eagerly. He wasn't a half-bad kisser, either. Maybe she'd give him half a chance before casting him aside. She pulled back then and smiled daintily at him.

"Be a darling and go ask McGonagall what's on the dessert menu?" She fluttered her eyes at him.

"O - okay." He swallowed and cleared his throat before he rose from his seat and headed down the Great Hall. He was even cuter when he blushed,and had a decent arse too. Maybe more than half a chance.

She pulled the vial from her pouch and her wand from it's holster, and carefully, quietly cast Disillusionment on the vial. When that was done, she unstoppered it and carefully cast Levitation on it.

Most everyone was eating, so there were thankfully few people walking around, and no-one between her table and Lovegood's. She floated the vial along the floor and up the near side of their table while Lovegood's date stuffed his face. She waited until he'd taken a sip of his drink and put it down again before she very carefully upended the vial into it. She brought the vial back to her and Vanished it along with its stopper just as Cormac sat back down.

"Chocolate souffle, treacle tart, trifle, ice cream, and back lava." He said. "Dunno what back lava is, but it doesn't sound great."

"Thanks, sweetbuns. Are you as good a dancer as you are a kisser?"

"Uh... hopefully? I've been practicing a bunch. Dancing I mean, not kissing. I don't get to..." He trailed off as his face went red.

She laughed and tossed back the rest of her drink. It was a pity there wasn't any alcohol allowed, she really could have done with a glass of wine. A revenge complete, a decently cute date who thought she was beautiful, and even a chance of getting his mouth on her bits in a broom closet later. Definitely one of the best Christmases in recent memory.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Apart from a slight commotion at one of the tables due to an overly-amorous couple, dinner had gone smoothly, and Harry had stored the memory of Hermione eating chocolate mousse for later. He had no idea why, but he'd found the sight incredibly sexy. Thankfully dessert hadn't lasted long and there had been sufficient time between the end of dessert and Dumbledore's announcement for his anatomy to return to normal.

He stood and took her hand as she stood, and they moved toward the dance floor. McGonagall had told them it was tradition for the Champions to open the dancing. He was both looking forward to dancing with Hermione and afraid of mucking it up.

The music rose then, a waltz, played by the small orchestra on the dais.

"May I have this dance?" Harry asked as he bowed to her.

"And every other." She smiled back at him. He placed his hand on her waist, and they spun into the dance floor. Cedric and Fleur were next, followed shortly by Viktor and Katie.

Thankfully he'd practiced enough that his feet knew what to do and he could just focus on the smile in Hermione's eyes. Several people tapped both of them on the shoulder, but it wasn't until Finnegan asked if he could cut in did Harry realize what it meant.

"Not ever." He replied with a smile, and they kept on dancing. After a while everyone seemed to get the hint, and the attempts to break them up stopped. It was about ten-thirty when the orchestra slowed the tempo down, and Hermione stepped into him. He wrapped his arm around her, and they danced on.

"About earlier..." Harry started. "What I was trying to say..."

Hermione lifted her chin from his shoulder and looked into his eyes. "Before Luna arrived."

He nodded. "I was going to say that... I'm over the moon that you're my Mate, just understand that first and foremost - but, if you weren't... If I wasn't a dragon and you weren't a dragon... If Magic hadn't decided we were married... If we were both just normal humans... I would still choose you, Hermione... I love you." He pressed a soft kiss to her cheek.

Hermione's eyes began to fill, and she bit both of her lips. She breathed deeply through her nose as she staved off the tears.

"You love me." She whispered.

He nodded as he looked into her eyes. "I do. There isn't any one thing I can put my finger on, no single thing or time that made it happen. I just realized it this afternoon while we sat on the couch. You know me, Hermione. Even more than knowing everything _about_ me - including the embarrassing things - you know _me_. My thoughts, my dreams, my fears, my weird desires... It struck me that I felt so very _home_ with you on the couch, but it wasn't the place. It wasn't the tree or the sofa or the fire or anything, it was _you_ , Hermione. I feel that way right now. I'm _home_. More at home than I've ever been in my life, and it's just you. You're my home. I don't ever want to be away from you. I might not have ever been in love before, but I can't think of any other way to say how I feel other than I love you. As well, I'm not sure if this is part of it, but I also..." He trailed off.

"You also?" She asked, her voice a soft purr.

"I also really want to take your clothes off." He whispered. "Watching you eat that dessert gave me _such_ a -"

"Stop. Stop right there." She cut him off with a harsh whisper. "If you make me aroused, you're going to have an episode right here in the middle of the Great Hall. Is that what you want?"

"Ah... no. Really no. Thank you for that." He kissed her forehead.

"I've been managing to keep my raging desire to get you naked on a slow simmer this whole time, but if you start putting thoughts in my head..." She shook her head as though to clear it, and Harry could almost see her put Occlumency to work.

"Raging desire to get me naked?" He asked when she had settled into an Occlumentic trance.

"You are _so_ _hot_ tonight. I think every girl in here tapped me on the shoulder."

"Good thing for me I didn't come here to dance with any of them. Have you had a nice night?"

She smiled, despite her trance. "Yes, I have." She kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

He smiled in return. "Good, I'm glad. That's what matters."

"What about you?' She asked.

"I am having a wonderful night, Hermione. Not quite as wonderful as last night, but a close second." He grinned, and she bit her lip.

"Right, that's it. We're done. What time is it?"

"Uh..." He Resonated for a moment. "Quarter to eleven."

"Lammy!" She whispered.

"What can I do for you?" Came the reply from thin air.

"Would you please have whoever is assigned to Neville, Luna, and Daphne let them know they're available to take them home whenever they wish? Duncan and I are heading home now."

"Right away." Lammy's whisper said.

"Thank you, Stealth Commander." Harry whispered with a grin.

"Thank you, Lammy." Hermione whispered.

She let him go and stepped away from him, careful not to back into any of the other dancers, and took his hand. They threaded their way off the dance floor, and paused to look back at the Great Hall from the doors. Harry leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"Thank you for making my Yule Ball a brilliant evening." He kissed her just under her ear. She shivered, and pulled him by the hand out of the Great Hall, out of the castle entirely, and all the way down to the front gates. She didn't even pause as they passed through the gates, she simply Resonated and Apparated them home. They appeared in the Apparition point below the gardens, and she didn't wait a single second after they arrived. She gripped his lapels and pulled him into a heated snog.

After a long minute, she pulled away and slapped his chest. "Prat!" She accused breathlessly.

"What'd I do?" Harry asked amusedly.

"When I tell you I'm barely holding it together, don't then go and kiss my neck like that!"

"Why not?"

"It makes -" She broke off and blushed. "I really like it, okay?"

"So I should do it more then." Harry looked at her through lowered brows over a hungry grin.

Her breath came faster and her pupils dilated and she shook her head. "No! I am _NOT_ getting naked in the garden." She turned immediately and strode quickly toward the house.

Harry growled in his chest and loped quietly after her, on the hunt. She glanced back and saw him about to overtake her. She screeched a short, truncated yelp, and dashed inside as quickly as her heels would allow. All through the house he stalked her, slowly but steadily gaining on her. She managed to get the bedroom door almost closed before he put his weight and strength against it, and forced it open.

She backed away from the door. Her chest heaved, her mouth smiled, and her eyes reflected his own desire. He covered the distance to her in a single pounce.

She flinched when he landed, unsure what to expect, but he was careful and didn't knock her to the floor. Instead, his hand cupped the back of her head, fingers in her hair, and gripped a fistful of it. Her breath caught in her throat as he pulled her head slowly back to expose her throat, and his teeth flashed down toward her exposed neck. He nipped at her skin, then licked where his teeth had been. He did that down her throat to her clavicle, then wrapped his whole mouth around the place her shoulder met her neck while his tongue danced over her skin.

"You look incredible." He purred in a low voice.

The fingers of his free hand found the zipper of her dress and pulled it down slowly. Too slowly. A pained whine escaped her as his mouth continued its way along her collarbone toward her shoulder as she waited for her dress to get out of the way.

Finally the zipper reached its terminus, and he slid the shoulders of the dress slowly over hers and slowly down her arms.

"Mine." He kissed the top of her breastbone as it was revealed.

"Mine." He kissed the bottom of her breastbone, between her breasts.

"Mine." He kissed her stomach between her ribs.

"Mine." He kissed her navel.

The dress dropped to the floor, and his hand relinquished its hold on her hair as he dropped to his knees in front of her. His hands gripped her hips and he kissed the soft mesh underwear that covered her hot, aching need. "Mine."

He stood again, and backed away from her. "Turn around." He ordered.

Her cheeks flushed even more, but she obeyed him and turned to show him her behind.

"All the way around." He demanded.

She turned around again to face him.

"You wore that underwear for me, didn't you?" His voice was gravelly, thick with lust.

"Yes." She breathed.

"Job done." He smiled, with a hint of predator. "You are the sexiest thing I have ever seen, Hermione, and that's including my own fantasies. Turn around and put your hands on the wall. I'm going to take it off you now."

Hermione gave an involuntary shudder and stepped up to the wall to place her hands on it.

"No. Take a step backward. Then put your hands on the wall. A BIG step."

She did, and had to bend forward at the waist in order to reach the wall.

"That's more like it." He said, and trailed his fingers up her pert behind as it thrust out toward him. He stepped into her and placed his hardness between her cheeks so she could feel what she did to him. A moan escaped her, full of need as she panted and tried to see him.

His fingers trailed fire up her spine as she struggled to push herself further against him, to grind herself onto him, but he denied her. She gasped as her bra came undone and her breasts fell free to hang in open air. He raked his nails lightly down her sides and caused another moan, and more shudders as he dripped burning kisses back down her spine. She expected him to stop and take her underwear off, but he slid it downward over her taut cheeks and dropped hot kisses there as well. She could feel his fingers slide her underwear slowly down her legs, and all at once she couldn't feel anything but his mouth between her legs.

Her limbs went weak. She had to concentrate to stay upright and had no strength to force herself into him. Her whole world shrunk into the feeling of his mouth on her, his tongue inside her most intimate spaces. Her panting became a litany of moans as his attention built the pressure wave inside her, stoked her pleasure higher and higher. Just as her moans became whines and her whines became ragged as she became desperate for release, he plunged his tongue deep inside her and pinched her most sensitive skin between his fingers. A howl of ecstasy, hoarse and involuntary tore its way from her throat as her mind was consumed by nothingness.

She came back to reality on the bed. Her stomach still twitched and she could feel the air around her like a thick, tingly blanket. Harry stood on the far side of the room. He had removed his dress robes and hung them on a hanger and was in the process of removing his vest.

She growled and crawled off the bed after him to slap his hands away from the buttons, then pushed him up against the wall.

"Mine." She stated in no uncertain tone, and kissed his mouth greedily. She undid his vest, peeled it from him, and dropped it to the floor. The ascott was next, though she was careful to not lose the pin in it. She got frustrated with his shirt as it took too long, so she undid his cufflinks and pulled the shirt off over his head.

"Miiiine." She growled and bit his neck. "Mine." She raked her nails down his chest at the same time, and gloried in the feel of his solid meat under soft skin. She kissed her way from his neck to his navel as she undid his belt and dropped his trousers to the floor.

She yanked his boxers down and wrapped her hand around his stiffness. She didn't bother with anything else, she just used it like a handle and pulled him to the bed. He nearly tripped on his boxers, but managed to get them to the floor before he did. She stood him in front of the bed and pushed him backward onto it, then pounced on his legs.

"Mine." She purred as she kissed his stomach and ran her hands up and down his torso. She smiled up at him as she did, then decided playtime was over.

She crawled up his body, kissed random places on the way up to claim his lips with hers. His hands were on her skin as well, he caressed her shoulders, her back, her neck, her breasts. She sat up and looked down at him with his hot length trapped between his body and her wet folds.

"I love you, Harry. I love you, Hidden Colours. I love you, Duncan. I love all of you and I can't deny that truth anymore. I love you and I want you. Are you... Do you think you're ready for..."

"I think so." He panted. "I'm not thinking very well right now, you drive me absolutely wild, but... yes. I want all of you."

She smiled and kissed him as she slid her slick heat up and down his length for a moment, satisfied with the way he ground his teeth and moaned. She sat up then, and his hands went to her breasts. She bit her lip at the shocks of pleasure every fondle and pinch gave her. She reached behind her to lever his manhood toward her entrance, and gasped at the sheer pleasure that accompanied the barest portion of him inside her.

She knew what came next. The books had been _very_ detailed. Little by little, she eased downward onto him. She felt the resistance, felt the pressure increase until it bordered on pain. She looked into his eyes, and dropped her full weight on him.

His breath sucked through his teeth and he groaned it out again. A sharp, tiny cry escaped her as she tore, and she panted as she shuddered. Her eyes closed involuntarily. The books had never mentioned that anything could hurt _so good_. She could feel his rigid thickness all the way up into her stomach, and it seemed to _radiate_ pleasure throughout her entire body. She could feel it in her fingertips, in her toes. She stayed there motionless, impaled upon him as she brought her breath under control.

"That hurt." She whispered. "But it feels _so good_ too."

She took a deep breath and Resonated. She pushed her magic into her sex, and in the space of three breaths the pain had gone. She smiled and opened her eyes again.

Harry's eyes were closed, his arms were splayed out to his sides, and his fists clenched and unclenched. A long, protracted groan escaped him, followed by heavy panting.

"That felt _unbelieveable_. " He panted. "Don't do it again, or I'm done right now."

His hips twitched, and drove him further into her. Her insides stretched, and electric pleasure raced up her spine. She arched her back and groaned. Even that small movement shifted him inside her and caused more. His hands were on her waist then, between her ribs and her hips, and he raised her off him, only to slam her down onto him again. The sudden, disappointing hollowness was erased by the explosion of hot, jangly _satisfaction_ he thrust into her.

She swivelled her hips forward and then back, and discovered even more pleasure as her most sensitive skin scraped through his coarse hair and pressed against his taut abdomen. Over and over, she thrust herself onto him, he thrust himself into her. The hot, jagged pressure built inside her like nothing she had ever felt, and just when she thought she could adjust to it, that she could keep it contained, it exploded and turned the world white.

She became aware of her own voice, deep in her chest like panted grunts. Her every muscle locked and shuddered as wave after wave of pure rapture radiated through her from her stomach, only to deplete after a moment.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked her, concerned.

"Mmmng." She replied with her lips on his. She had fallen off him as she locked up, and lay beside him. As an answer, she pulled him on top of her as she panted, and smiled up at him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him to her.

"More?" He asked with a grin.

"More." She growled.

He entered her again and filled her with bliss. The feeling of having her legs spread by him was another unexpected turn-on, and the pressure inside her built even faster as Harry rammed himself into her over and over. His face contorted with pleasure as he continued his efforts, and he began to hiss.

"Oh Hermione! Oh fuck! Oh Fuck! Oh Hermione!" She could feel his whole body gradually tense up, and she realized he was going to explode as well. That put a smile in her chest and on her face, and she pulled his hips into her harder with her heels.

"Ahhhhh!" He groaned, followed by shorter grunts. His face twisted into a grimace of pleasure, and she _liked_ it. She felt his hot climax splash against her insides as he did, and it caused her own pleasure to explode again.

He lay down on top of her and panted like he'd run a marathon.

"Oh Hermione." He breathed, as he swept the hair back from her face.

She turned to him and kissed him with purpose, kissed him with all her love and intent. She _claimed_ him, told him that his place was with her and her place was with him, and nothing would come between them, not ever.

* * *

  
  


They arrived out of thin air in front of Gringott's at precisely 12:50 pm.

Sirius immediately put his hand to his stomach, but a slow smile spread across his face, rather than the nauseous grimace he'd expected.

"That was... almost _pleasant_." He said incredulously.

"We're going to have to research the why later, but we've noticed that Apparating via Resonance is easier on the internal organs, especially for side-alongs." Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"And anyone can learn." He said. Harry had told him as much at dinner the previous evening, but Sirius was still quite skeptical.

"Well, it took me months of daily training. So a regular wizard, maybe as much as a year. You? Five to ten." Harry grinned at him and strode toward the open doors to the bank.

"Just like your father, cheeky little bastard." Sirius muttered behind a proud smile. He started after Harry, and Hermione followed behind.

A smartly-suited goblin met them just inside the doors. "Right this way, Mister and Missus MacFusty." He said, and shuffled into one of the conference rooms off to the side of the main lobby. It was yet empty.

"I'll need your wands, please. All of them." The goblin held out his hand.

Harry handed his wand to the goblin. Sirius did too, but only one. Harry raised an eyebrow at him, but Sirius raised both his hands, palms out.

"I knew this was going to happen, so I only brought the one."

Harry quirked one corner of his mouth and went to sit down.

"Might I ask your name, sir goblin?" Hermione bowed to him.

"Gripspike, Missus MacFusty."

"Thank you, Gripspike." She handed her wand over with pressed lips. She had tried for hours to move her ears, but hadn't managed. Harry couldn't do it either, but that hadn't made her any less disappointed.

"Please be comfortable. I will show the other party in when they arrive." The goblin announced, and promptly left to go about his duties.

Harry took a seat at one end of the table, and Hermione next to him on his right. Sirius sat on Harry's left and leaned back in the chair.

Hermione Resonated and swept the room for magic.

"Any idea where you're going to take this?" Sirius asked.

"I'm guessing since the letter emphasized peace that they'll essentially ask us not to kill Ronald."

"Do you want to?" Sirius asked softly, his eyebrows raised.

"Yes." Harry replied without a hint of hesitation.

"Why?"

Harry just looked to Hermione.

"Because he bullied me for three years. Specifically, last year he stole my book bag and used it as a urinal. We're understandably pissed about that."

Harry grinned at her.

Sirius looked from Hermione to Harry and back again. "I want to laugh, but I'm not sure it's funny. Were you being serious there or making a joke?"

"You're Sirius. I'm a complicated, intelligent woman. I can do both at once."

He barked a laugh then, and smiled at the two of them. They both had depth he hadn't expected.

"Lily would have adored you." He smiled at her.

"Well then I guess I know where I get it from." He winked at Hermione and interlaced his fingers with hers.

Sirius smiled as he watched them make loveyfaces at each other. It warmed his old bones and juxtaposed them with James and Lily. Despite the obvious differences, Harry made the same face James had. Neither could stop their feelings from completely taking over their faces. Even Hermione made the same embarrassed, suffering, but secretly thrilled face Lily used to.

Gripspike opened the door then, four wands clutched in his other hand. Fred and George entered the room first, and came right over to them, hands out.

"Fred, George. Nice to see you. Good holidays so far?" Harry shook their hands.

"Can't complain." Fred said.

"Managed a thing or two." George smiled.

Hermione nodded to the twins politely, and they bowed in return.

"Allow me to introduce Sirius Black, also known as Padfoot. Sirius, Fred and George Weasley, your spiritual inheritors."

"Lads." Sirius nodded to the twins and shook their hands. "Duncan tells me you've had a few successes at school."

"Middling trifles, comparatively." Fred grinned.

"Nothing that compared to your masterful confections." George grinned as well.

The older redheaded man put a hand on each of their shoulders, and they took seats across from Harry and Hermione. He turned to Sirius then.

"Sirius. Good to see you again." He offered his hand, which Sirius shook.

"Arthur. Lovely to be seen again." He grinned. "Keeping well?"

Arthur flashed a smile. "Well enough, considering." He stood a little straighter then, and it shed some of the tired look about him.

"And you must be Mister and Missus MacFusty." Arthur smiled and held out a hand, so they both shook it. "A great pleasure to meet you both. You're even taller than your father was."

"Since you know who my father was, I'll thank you for keeping it to yourself." Harry bowed slightly.

Arthur waved his hand. "Nonsense. Good people. Sorely missed. Thank you for coming. This," He waved his hand behind him to indicate the young man who looked a lot like Fred and George, "Is Bill, my eldest and Heir."

Bill stepped forward and shook hands with the three of them.

"Bill, pleasure to meet you." Harry said with a smile.

"Likewise. Mister MacFusty."

"Duncan, if you please. All the Mister makes me feel like I'm at school."

Bill smiled and nodded and took a seat next to Fred. Arthur sat the other side of George, opposite Sirius.

"So... I'm guessing this is something to do with Ronald?" Harry asked.

"On the nose, Mister MacFusty."

"Duncan, please. You're concerned for his safety."

"Frankly, yes. And not just his." Arthur's brows furrowed.

Harry nodded. "I'm sorry someone tangled Jenny up in a plot to hurt me. How is she doing?"

"She's fine, thank you for asking, but I was talking about all of us."

"Ah." Harry smiled slightly at that. What they'd discussed was in fact the case. George and Fred must have told him about his angry declaration to them in the Great Hall. He turned to them.

"You told him about what I said, but did you tell him why?" He asked them.

"Not really room in the letter..." George mumbled.

Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Really? Am I going to be embarrassed now? Not even the whole story?"

"Sorry dad." Fred mumbled.

"Well, don't despair quite yet, Arthur." Sirius smiled. "Gripspike!"

The door opened and Gripspike entered. "Yes?"

"Might we borrow a memory viewer?" Sirius asked.

"A goblin will have to be present." Gripspike answered.

"I'm alright with that." Arthur said.

"Gringott's has my trust." Harry nodded.

Gripspike closed the door again as he left. The twins were uncharacteristically quiet as they waited.

"No doubt Ronald told you how I broke every bone in his body as well?" Harry asked.

Arthur nodded. "Gave his mother conniptions that did."

"Did he tell you how Madam Pomfrey mended all his bones as well?"

"No, but it's a reasonable assumption, she is the school -"

" _I_ mended his bones. Did he tell you how our duel wouldn't have happened at all if he hadn't insulted Hermione?"

"No. He neglected to mention that." Arthur said quietly. Harry could see the man becoming angry, but he could tell it wasn't anger directed at him or Hermione.

Gripspike returned then, along with another goblin who carried a large, flat piece of clear crystal the size of a tea saucer. The new goblin climbed into a chair next to Hermione and placed the crystal on the table in front of him. He detached a small piece from the side of the crystal and held it up.

"Whose is the first memory?" He asked.

"I guess that would be me." Harry said. "I'm Duncan MacFusty, sir goblin. May I have your name?"

"All Gringott's knows who you are, Mister MacFusty. Brainspray, at your service. Hold this to your forehead as you concentrate on the memory, the crystal will do the work." He handed Harry the piece of the main crystal he held in his hand.

Harry took a moment to gather his thoughts and order them chronologically before he pressed the crystal to his forehead and relived the memories in question. The piece of crystal on his head glowed softly when he finished.

Brainspray held his hand out for the crystal piece, and slotted it into its parent crystal when Harry handed it to him. Above the flat crystal, full-colour three-dimensional images played with sound, seen through Harry's eyes.

"This is just after I've been sorted." Harry said. "First night at Hogwarts."

Arthur and Bill visibly winced at Ronald's shout to Hermione, and both grew red in the face while Ronald explained his shouted comment. That memory ended as Harry handed Ron his wand and walked back into the Great Hall.

The next memory showed the castle courtyard as Harry walked into it.

It played out Ginny's arrival and Hermione's discovery of what had happened to her. When Ronald's voice cut through the moment they had together, all four redheads gasped and turned white.

"I never knew what he said..." Fred whispered.

"Disgusting." Bill whispered.

They watched as the rest of the memory played out, and it ended as Ronald ran off to see to Ginny.

"Any questions?" Harry asked.

"I can show you the memory of my bookbag and cleaning all the library books that were in it if you like." Hermione said coldly.

Arthur flinched at her icy tone and seemed to shrink in on himself, and looked more tired than he had when he arrived.

"I don't think that's necessary, Lady MacFusty." Bill said. "The message is quite clear already."

"I have one memory I'd like you to see." Hermione said. "It's one that Duncan can't give you and wouldn't if he could. To him it doesn't mean anything."

Brainspray took the small crystal out of its slot and tapped it on the opposite side of the large flat crystal. The glow from Harry's memory faded, and he handed it to Hermione. She placed it on her forehead and concentrated, then handed it back to Brainspray with a new glow.

The memory that played was in the Great Hall, the crowd of girls who stood behind Duncan, who he then protected as Duncan was sprayed with greenish-yellow muck. It continued, and showed George and Fred's quiet conversation regarding the prank, then sped to the infirmary where a grotesque parody of Duncan rested on the bed and was treated by Madam Pomfrey, including the nasty-tasting potion he'd had to suck through a straw. The memory ended after Hermione whispered her message to Duncan and left the infirmary.

Again, all four redheads winced.

"Duncan doesn't think much of things that happen to him, but things happening to me makes him angry. I've hated Ronald since first year, but nothing he did to me makes me as angry as this does." Hermione said with a glower.

"Thank you for not killing my boy." Arthur said then. "Merlin knows others would have, and he might even deserve it, but he's still my boy." His tone of voice sounded defeated.

"Well, now that you have all the information, was there anything you wanted to ask? I'm guessing you had a point to this meeting besides getting to the bottom of what happened between Ronald and us." Harry said calmly. He could see Arthur wasn't a bad person, nor did Bill seem to be. He already knew the twins weren't as such, despite initial impressions.

Arthur nodded. "I did, but... I came with half the information and a skewed understanding. I had some hope my family wasn't completely in the wrong, but that isn't the case." He sat up straight, and Harry could see a hint of steel in his eyes. He stood up, and bowed at the waist. "I offer you my deepest apologies, Lord and Lady MacFusty, I shall do everything I can to make amends."

"Arthur - May I call you Arthur?"

"Yes, please." He replied.

"Please, sit down Arthur. I can see that Ronald is the exception in your family rather than the norm. I must apologize for what I said to the twins in the Great Hall that first night as well, I've no intention of blood feuding anyone. I was a trifle cross at the time."

Arthur took his seat again, relieved. "I still must take responsibility for his actions. At the end of the day he's my son. I'm his Head of House. How can I keep my family safe and work toward an alliance with your House?"

"We don't need allies, but friends are welcome." Hermione replied.

"Your family is in no danger from us. Ronald, on the other hand... well, you heard what I told him. You know I'm a man of my word. Honestly though, I don't think even Ronald is pig headed enough to insult her _again_. Not after that."

"You won't have to worry about Ronald. He's going to be home schooled from now on." Arthur said through clenched teeth.

Harry shook his head. "Not because of this, I hope. If you want to pull him out of Hogwarts because of his grades, that's one thing, but don't do it on our account. In six months it will be a non-issue as we will be leaving Hogwarts permanently to finish school abroad."

"You're not leaving Britain permanently I hope?" Arthur seemed suddenly anxious at the news.

"Not permanently, no." Harry admitted.

"Thank Merlin." Arthur muttered.

"Why's that?" Harry asked with a frown. "Why would it matter if we were in Britain or not?"

Arthur shot a glance at Sirius, but Sirius only raised his eyebrows in return.

"Do you know... how your parents died?" Arthur asked gently.

"Voldemort killed them." Harry replied. "Sirius told me that story."

"He tried to kill you as well. His killing curse gave you that scar. Instead, something else happened. There are those who say his curse rebounded and he was destroyed. That's why Harry Potter was hailed as the saviour of our world."

"But?" Harry asked.

"But... There are also those who say Voldemort isn't truly dead. That he'll come back. That Harry Potter was to be our best hope against him."

"I suppose those who say that are in a position to know how to come back from the dead?" Harry asked, his voice dripped disbelief. "What do you believe?"

"I fought them once. I'd rather not do it again. My reflexes aren't what they were. I can only hope the world never sees evil like that again." Arthur replied.

"Moldywarts was the darkest of the dark, Duncan. There are some dark rituals that could accomplish that." Sirius said quietly. "I've been looking into things that happened while I was... away."

Harry looked at Sirius then, eyebrows flat. "For real." His voice was sharp.

Sirius pressed his lips together and nodded. "Yeah. For real."

Harry's jaw worked and made the muscles ripple. "And you didn't think to tell me before now?" he asked quietly.

"Nobody knows for sure if he _can_ come back. Just because there are dark rituals that _could_ allow it doesn't mean he knew them or performed them. The few things I've run across are genuinely sickening."

"I'm assuming 'darkest of the dark' also means not squeamish." Harry countered.

"I didn't want to burden you with it until I knew something concrete, Duncan. We're still getting to know each other, and I didn't want to seem like a loon."

Harry stared into Sirius's eyes. "Alright." He sighed finally, "That's fair. I suppose I can't really blame you for that." He turned to look at Hermione. "One more thing we'll have to research in our spare time."

"That we have none of." She frowned.

Harry nodded to her, just as annoyed.

"I'll help, of course." Sirius said. "I've nothing _but_ free time. You two go about your schooling and do what you're already doing. I'll work on coming up with information."

"If you need help, let us know. We could ask Fawkes or any of the elves to help you."

"Fawkes?" Arthur frowned. "Isn't that Dumbledore's bird?"

"Formerly." Hermione said. "A Hogwarts elf found his frozen body in the trash and brought him to us. We managed to help him, and now he's quite happy to live with us."

"In the _trash_?" Arthur frowned and looked at Sirius.

"I don't know anything for certain yet." Sirius said quietly.

"Would you let me know what you find? If he's..."

Sirius nodded. "I will. I've had the same thoughts myself."

"Thank you Sirius." Arthur stood then and offered his hand to Harry. Harry also stood and shook it. "Thank you, my Lord. For being a good man. We will see to Ron, and hope to Merlin we never have to look to you to save us all again. My apologies for interrupting your holidays, Happy New Year." He flashed a smile that was overshadowed by the obviously weighty things on his mind.

"Happy New year." Harry replied. "Owls addressed to Duncan or Hermione MacFusty will reach us, if you should need to."

Arthur smiled genuinely then. "Likewise - addressed to me, of course. No sense sending yourself mail."

The twins waved as they followed their father and brother out. "See you in school." Fred said.

"Send me an owl anytime you like, lads." Sirius grinned.

"Thanks, we will!" They gushed in stereo.

Harry sat back down again and let out a long breath. Hermione's hand slipped into his.

"Make sure you keep in touch, please? This is going to worry us until we know something." He said to Sirius.

"I'm sure you'll find ways to make each other relax." He grinned.

  
  



	13. Chapter 13

  
  


Lammy appeared in front of them as they strolled the fourth floor corridor, hand in hand, on their way to their apartment.

"Lammy!" Harry scooped her into a hug and then stood back up. "What's up?"

"Miss Daphne asked Wolly to tell you she'd like to meet with you as soon as possible, but Wolly doesn't know his way around Hogwarts, so I came. What shall I tell Miss Daphne?"

"Please tell her we'll meet her in class four F on the fourth floor at half -five." Hermione answered. "That gives her half an hour to get here and stow her belongings and such. Thank you for relaying the messages, Lammy." Hermione smiled and gave Lammy a hug as well.

"It's my pleasure, Missus." Lammy smiled warmly and vanished again.

"So I guess now we have a date with Daphne. Nev will be steaming jealous." Harry chuckled.

"In your dreams." Hermione scoffed.

Harry laughed. "As a matter of fact, no. Neville's, yes. Mine, no."

"Neville has dreams about Daphne and _us_?" Hermione's face twisted in distaste.

Harry laughed even harder. "No, about Daphne. Well maybe, I don't know. That's gross and I would never ask, but I'm going to guess no and keep guessing no." He shuddered and grimaced with his tongue out.

Hermione smiled at his discomfort. "Yeah, that." She agreed, and took his hand again. "I'm going to start on the study and revision schedule when we get in, did you have anything planned?"

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I'm going to use your wonderful gift and start work on an expansion for where the shower is, make a real bathroom. I'll have to plot out the arrays for the expansion, design the space, and then test whether they'll interfere with the castle as it is. If not, the rest is easy."

"I love it when you talk sexy like that." She purred and looked at him through lowered lashes.

"You'll love my next project then. I'm not telling you about it though. If I do, we'll get nothing done at all."

"Now I want to know!" She mock-pouted.

"How do you keep a Witch in suspense?" He asked, then ran off down the hall as he laughed to himself.

"You'd better run!" She shouted after him. "Prat!"

He waited for her in the study room, and she slapped his shoulder when he was in reach, which made him chuckle again.

She changed the password when they were in the hidden corridor, and as soon as the brick door was closed and they were alone in their space, she pushed him against the wall and melted onto him with a welcome home snog.

He accepted her and wrapped his arms around her, and when she'd had enough of a snog, he brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her again, gently. "I love being with you, Hermione. You make me happy just by being near."

She lay her head on his chest and snuggled into him. "Mmmm. I love you too Harry. I can't imagine being without you anymore."

He kissed her head. "Good thing you don't have to then. You're stuck with me forever."

"I'm glad you can still say that after meeting my parents." She whispered. "I'm so sorry about that."

Harry took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm sorry too. I tried to be open minded and not judge. I really did. I thought maybe they just loved you in their own way, you know? Mother's love isn't the same as Maisie's, after all."

Her arms tightened around him. "I'm sure there's some kind of justification inside them somewhere, but I don't think it's the same as love. I'm not even sure they ever actually loved each other. They're just... agreeable."

"I'll give you all the love you can handle, my chocolate sweetheart. Now and always."

"Promise you'll kick my arse if I ever start becoming like them too."

"To the moon." He held her tighter as well. "Same goes for me."

"Deal."

She kissed him again, and let go to sit at the dinner table. She pulled out her bookbag and began a new schedule. Harry sat across from her and pulled his trunk out of his pocket to get his new enchanting book out, and began to plot out the runic arrays that would expand the space needed for a new bathroom.

Hermione's wand chimed at twenty after four, and they made their way to four F under Disillusionment. They dropped the invisibility when they were safely inside the classroom, and Harry sat at one of the desks. Despite the presence of twenty-four unoccupied desks, Hermione sat on him.

Daphne arrived exactly on time, and carefully closed the door behind her, drew her wand and sealed the door, then made sure they wouldn't be overheard. When that was done, she walked over to Hermione and pulled her into a hug.

"Neville told me at the ball. I can't believe you would do such a thing for me!" Daphne said excitedly.

"Which thing exactly?" Hermione asked.

"Agreeing to be my political conquests - not really of course, but that's what everyone in Slytherin will believe. It will take a couple of weeks and a few subtle rumours, but after that it should be okay to wave to each other at dinner and such. After that... well, everyone knows Duncan is unpredictable. Thank you so much for thinking of it, both of you." Daphne curtsied in front of Harry.

"I realize you'll still have to act distant in public, as well. Still, it will give us an excuse to spend free time together, and that's the important part." Hermione said.

Daphne grinned as she contemplated spending time with friends. "I can't wait.”

Hermione smiled a bit sadly then. "It's almost a shame we're leaving Hogwarts at the end of this term."

"School is only a few years," Harry said, "It's not like we're moving to the moon."

"We can still stay in touch I hope?" Hermione asked hopefully. “See each other on holidays and such?”

"I would like that very much, thank you." Daphne said with a small smile, and turned to the door, but looked back at them. "See you in class."

"See you in class, Daphne." Hermione smiled back.

When Daphne had gone and they were sure they were alone, Harry kissed Hermione's cheek. "Don't take this the wrong way, but she reminds me of you when you first realized you could have friends."

She smiled at him, then shot a worried glance at the door. "No, I understand. In some ways she has it worse than I ever did. At least I could disappear, lick my wounds. She has to be unaffected in public. All the time. She can't even cry properly."

"Can't cry properly? How do you mean?" Harry frowned.

"When we were getting ready and Luna and I broached the subject of being friends, she looked like she was about to cry, same as I did, but instead her mask slipped on. She said she wasn't allowed to cry because crying was unattractive."

Harry sighed and raked his clawed hand through his hair angrily. "Sometimes I really hate being a pinkskin."

"All we can do is be her friends and encourage her to be healthy. Let her know that her upbringing was wrong and it's okay to be who she is. The way you did for me." She grabbed both his wrists and wrapped his arms around her.

"As long as you don't fall for her the way I fell for you." Harry quirked one corner of his mouth in a sardonic grin and rested his forehead against hers.

She chuckled and kissed his nose. "No chance."

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Puis-je avoir les croissants, s'il vous plait?" Neville asked Fleur.

"Mais oui!" She smiled and handed him a plate of croissants.

"Did you figure the egg out yet?" Harry asked Cedric quietly.

"No, not yet." Cedric sighed, but then brightened. "Had other things on my mind over the holidays."

Harry chuckled. "That makes four of us. Good holidays then?"

Cedric smiled back. "Brilliant."

"Good, I like it when friends are happy." Harry took a bite of his breakfast and ate with a smile.

"Are we friends then?" Cedric raised an eyebrow.

"I count Fleur as one," He said after he swallowed, "so whether you like it or not..."

Cedric laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Fair enough."

"You're finished the end of this term, right? You're in seventh year?"

Cedric nodded. "Yeah, I need to start applying for positions soon."

"Good luck. If there's -" Harry was interrupted by a small flock of owls as it descended on breakfast. At the Ravenclaw table, one stopped in front of Fleur, Cedric, Neville, Luna, and Arielle. Each owl carried a large brown envelope addressed to them. Elsewhere, similar packages were delivered to certain people at each table.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" Arielle asked as she reflexively fed the owl a fingerful of sausage. She looked up the table and spotted the others opening their envelopes.

"I can see you grinning at each other." Luna accused Harry and Hermione. "What did you do?"

"Nothing we didn't do for ourselves." Hermione replied, without bothering to hide her grin.

"Aww, c'est merveilleux!" Fleur exclaimed as she pulled the pictures from the envelope and watched them. The elves had done a fantastic job of photography, and Harry and Hermione had made sure they knew how grateful they were for their help.

"These are amazing, thank you." Neville whispered to Harry, "I can scarcely believe it's me dancing with her like that. Evidence of a dream come true, that is."

"You make a great couple." Harry whispered back.

"'Ow did you make zees?" Arielle asked, amazed at the different angles and moments captured. "We are all danser en meme temps! Look, you are 'ere en zis photo, et la, et la." She pointed at Harry and Hermione dancing in the background of several of the pictures.

"We had some help." Hermione said. "There were some _very_ interesting pictures taken that night, but we won't be showing any of those until le chantage commence." She grinned and winked at Arielle. Arielle blushed scarlet. Cedric and Fleur took no notice, they had their heads together as they compared photos.

Hermione looked at Harry with a smile, but whatever she had been about to say died on her lips as she spotted McGonagall headed in their direction. Harry noticed the change on her face just as she whispered "Heads up."

"Mister MacFusty, the Headmaster would like to see you in his office after breakfast." Professor McGonagall said as she paused behind him.

"Thank you Professor." Harry replied. She nodded and continued on her way.

"No picnic without rain, no good deed unpunished." Hermione muttered bitterly. "Wonder what he wants this time."

"Only one way to find out." Harry kissed her cheek. "Have you had enough breakfast or can Dumbledore wait?"

"Doesn't matter." She sighed. "That's done my appetite in. I'm surprised he managed to wait a whole week after holidays."

Harry chuckled. "This is the first Saturday. Was probably waiting for the first ray of sunshine to crap on."

"No doubt." She flashed a smile at him. "Best get it over with then, we have to be in Brussels for two o'clock."

They wished the group a good day, and left the table.

"Can't wait to be done with this place." Hermione said softly as she slipped her hand into his.

"Me either." He squeezed her hand reassuringly.

The statue rotated out of the way as they approached, but unlike every other time either of them had been to the Headmaster's office, the door at the top of the stairs remained shut. Harry looked at Hermione and shrugged.

"Maybe he isn't in." He said hopefully.

"And maybe he's playing stupid games." Hermione frowned and knocked on the door.

They waited a moment, and no voice called out, and the door remained shut.

Hermione sighed. "Well, he can wait then. We don't have time for this." She turned to go, and the door swung inward silently.

"Duncan, my boy! Come in, come in. You should've knocked." Dumbledore's happy grandfather mask was on in full force.

Harry looked at Hermione, and each set of eyes conveyed annoyed exasperation.

"What was it you wanted to see me about, Headmaster?" Harry asked. He didn't bother to sit down.

"Take a seat, Duncan, relax." Dumbledore steepled his fingers patiently.

"I'm fine." He remained standing.

"Lemon Drop?" Dumbledore indicated the bowl on the desk.

"No thank you." Harry clasped his hands behind his back.

"Very well. I suppose you're wondering why I asked you here." Dumbledore's doddering exterior betrayed no hint of a smile.

"That was the meaning behind my use of the words 'what did you want to see me about', yes." Harry said calmly as they waited for Dumbledore to get to the point.

Hermione schooled her face as she tried to keep the grin she felt at Harry's riposte from showing. What was the old bastard doing? It was like he was deliberately poking Harry to make him angry. She hoped Harry had realized it too.

"Mm." Dumbledore nodded. "I understand neither of you have been sleeping in your beds." He said gravely, and turned his gaze to Hermione. "Miss Granger for quite some time." He paused a moment to let that sink in.

"No," Harry corrected, "We don't sleep in _your_ beds. The beds we sleep in do in fact belong to us."

"Be that as it may, Mister MacFusty, it is nevertheless required for you to sleep in your dorms. I'm afraid I have no choice but to expel you Miss Granger. I'm afraid your magic is to be bound this afternoon and your wand snapped. I'm sorry, my dear."

Hermione started to laugh.

Dumbledore was not amused by it. "What praytell is so amusing? Do you not understand the gravity of what is to befall you?"

Hermione wiped tears from the corners of her eyes. "What is to befall me. Priceless!" She chuckled for a moment longer. "To answer your question Headmaster - yes, I know exactly what's going to happen to me. It's _you_ fishing in the dark, employing childish tricks in a feeble attempt to anger Duncan and me, as though neither of us know the laws. We both know exactly what you can and can't do, Headmaster. Watching you flounder while trying to project an air of authority is beyond hilarious." She felt Harry begin to Resonate, so she did the same.

"Now see here!" Dumbledore rose from his seat, grandfatherly act dropped like a hot stone. "Not even that bloody chicken dared to disrespect me so." Dumbledore's eyes narrowed and his expression became resolute. His wand was in his hand then, and he flicked it at Harry. Hermione reached out with her magic and took it from him as he did. Whatever he had cast at Harry splashed against the wall behind them with a fizzle sound as Harry nimbly twisted out of the way.

Hermione noticed the paintings of previous headmasters were all intently watching and listening, so she covered them all with black paper. Then she cast a silence shell around the three of them.

Harry sighed and went to stand in front of Dumbledore. "I had really hoped for better, Headmaster. Not only was Hermione right about everything she said, you then made a classically sexist mistake and tried to take me out first, when Hermione is far more dangerous."

"So it's to be violence then." Dumbledore glowered at them. "In my own office."

"No, Headmaster," Harry made a distasteful face, "That wouldn't be fair or civilized. No, I will simply give you what you gave me, and we will see how your mental defenses hold up. I'm tired of your meddling in affairs that don't concern you – affairs FAR beyond your purview, I might add. More importantly, I want to know if it was you who put my name in the cup. Are you ready?"

Dumbledore scoffed. "I have been practicing Occlumency for a hundred years, boy. Do your worst."

Harry smiled like a shark, and it sent shivers up Hermione's spine.

"As you say." Harry nodded, then looked Dumbledore in the eyes. The old man went rigid instantly. Hermione saw his eyes widen and fear seeped out of his expression just like the sweat that began to seep out of his skin.

Harry's probing thoughts pushed against Dumbledore's shield as he took his time and looked for a weakness. Dumbledore offered him several roads into his mind, but Harry knew that defense, he knew the roads led nowhere and were designed to get him lost. He instead swept the entire vision aside. Dumbledore offered him a castle - a Hogwarts replica, complete with a moat and soldiers and other defenses. This too was swept aside. Each defense that Harry swept aside saw Dumbledore's breathing get faster and shallower. Harry realized the poor man didn't know he hadn't even begun his attack yet.

"We only have a couple of hours before we have to leave, Duncan." Hermione reminded him.

"Right. Sorry. Was looking for a tender spot, but I have to hand it to him, the whole thing seems solid. I guess any spot is as good as another."

Harry calmly gathered his Will and focused it into a spike, then rammed it into Dumbledore's mind. The shell around it cracked like sugarglass, and crumbled. Decades' worth of memories flooded his mind. His guilt over turning Tom into Voldemort - even greater than his guilt over murdering his own sister. His careful planning around Trelawney's interview. His triumph at turning Snape against Tom while simultaneously ridding himself of two Order members who threatened his command. His careful planning of Harry's entire life-to-be. His anger at the idiot muggle who had fucked it all up. The neverending accusatory questions from Frank and Alice that forced their removal. His scramble to recover when Harry hadn't shown up first year or second or third. His current plan to wind him up and point him at Tom.

Harry saw _everything_.

"Duncan, what's wrong?" Hermione's concerned voice asked. He realized he was on the verge of transforming, and growled as he yanked his power back from the precipice. He left Dumbledore's mind, and smashed his fist into his face.

Dumbledore dropped like a sack of bricks.

Harry put his hands on his own knees and tried to breathe. The air inside him felt hot. He felt too big for his skin. He needed to _grow_. He needed to breathe, to roar, to smash the puny - Hermione put her hands on his jaw and made him look up at her.

"What is it? What's wrong?" She asked. Her warm chocolate cinnamon eyes begged him to stay with her.

"Hurts." He gasped. "Want to... kill him so bad... it hurts. Give me... give me a minute."

"You're scaring me, Harry. Talk to me. Please." Hermione's face warped with concern.

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing. He put everything he'd taken from Dumbledore in a box inside his mind, and that released the immediate pressure to end him.

"Okay, I think I'm okay for the moment. I'll have to go through all that mess later and organize it before you read it from me." He stood up and pulled her into a hug. "I'll share it all in a bit, I need to Obliviate him first so we were never here."

"No. You're not calm, you'll erase him. I'll do it. Sit." She Helped him into a chair and set Dumbledore's wand down on his desk, then went to kneel beside his prone form. His face was broken, there was no other way to describe it. Blood pooled on the floor as it streamed from his nose and mouth. She watched him as he lay there, revulsion warred with glee inside her. The need to heal him warred with her desire to hit him again. She glanced over at Harry, and it focused her. He sat leaned back in the chair, both hands held his head as though to try to keep it from bursting. It was his eyes though... they were in turns haunted and hungry, pained and berserk.

She blew an angry breath out through her nose and reached out with her power. Little by little, spell by spell, Dumbledore's face rebuilt itself under her will. _Brackium Emendo_ to repair the skull, _Conrigo_ to stitch the torn muscle and skin back into a contiguous whole. She stunned him when she was nearly finished, in case he woke too soon. She vanished the blood from his face and clothes and beard, then the pool of it from the floor. She lifted him back into his chair and arranged him as though he was just taking a nap.

She used layers as she wove new memories for him, a core to replace the real memory, then gentle layers to smooth the crisp, vivid new memory into the background, to make it seamless, and to permanently erase the last half hour should anyone tamper with her work.

"Come on, we need to get ready to leave." She pulled Harry to his feet and pushed him out the door, then revived Dumbledore as she closed the door behind them.

Covered by her nondetections, she carried Harry to their apartment and set him on the bed.

"Meditate." She told him. "Get your head together. Don't worry about anything, I'll get us to Brussels on time. Get yourself sorted, Harry. I love you."

He grunted and nodded once, then lay back and closed his eyes.

He opened the box that contained Dumbledore's memories and dove in. It took some time to sort the memories chronologically and it was tedious to do, but once that was done he left most of them in the Dumbledore box. Most of them were personal and irrelevant and he had no wish to ever see them. Some of them though, particularly the ones that concerned Tom Marvolo Riddle and himself, he strung into a coherent timeline, ready to share with Hermione. At least when she read him she would know where he came from and what had happened to him. That was something.

When he opened his eyes, he was wearing different clothes and seated in an office. Hermione faced him with her wand out.

"Oh!" She smiled. "Good timing, I was just about to sting you awake."

Harry frowned as he looked at the position of her wand. She sat beside him with her wand sideways in her lap, pointed toward his lap. "Sting me... _where_ exactly?"

She chuckled and leaned close to whisper in his ear. "Right on the tip of your..." She kissed his earlobe. "Nose. I'm not _that_ cruel, Harry."

He chuckled and kissed her. "I'd still love you anyway. I might be a trifle upset, but I'd still love you. This is Academie de Magie?"

"It is. Are you alright now?" She slipped her hand into his.

"I am, thanks. I organized the mess into a chronology and edited the irrelevant and disgusting bits. Soon as we're done here you can read it. Not until we're alone though, you're going to go completely mental."

Her brows touched each other and set her eyes on fire.

"Yeah, it's that bad. Snape is a marked Death Eater."

Her eyebrows clenched even further, and her lips pressed together in thought.

"Excusez-moi, etes-vous Mackfoostees?"

Hermione turned to look at the woman who faced them, and spoke in French. "Yes, that's us."

"Oh good." She smiled at them, and held her hand out to Hermione. "I'm Emmeline, I'll be your guide today."

Harry switched to French and shook her hand as well. "Thank you." He said.

"My pleasure. If you'll follow me, we'll start with the classrooms."

The classrooms were much the same as Hogwarts, but nicer. Better maintained, cleaner, more stylish, but not really any different. Harry tried to pay attention as much as possible, but his mind was on Vold - Tom, and the threat he still posed. The war was not over, and Tom had been in the bloody school during Hermione's first year. That alone made him angry and anxious, but he also reviewed what he now knew he had to do.

Hermione squeezed his hand occasionally to get him to pay attention during important bits, but she could tell he wasn't really there. Hermione roused him enough to thank Emmeline when the tour was finished, and he quietly thanked Hermione as well, he would have to rely on her experience when they were deciding whether or not to attend.

"Take us to the clearing where we spoke with Langelet please. That way you can blow things up and it won't damage much."

Hermione frowned all the way to the Apparation point, but remained focused enough to get them there without splinching either of them. The forbidden forest was dark, even in a clearing at four-thirty in the afternoon. Harry could hear things moving among the trees, but was less worried about what they might be than Hermione's impending wrath.

He hugged her for a moment when they arrived, then held her at arms' length.

"Hurry up Harry, I'm dying of curiosity here." She said in an exasperated tone.

He flashed a smile at her, then nodded. "Ready." He pushed everything he'd arranged to the forefront of his mind, and hid the rest behind a shield. He could feel her absorb everything he'd prepared, and then gently withdraw from his mind. It took her a few seconds to process everything.

"Slapped a FUCKING BABY?!?" Her voice rose in pitch as the wind kicked up around her and flames sprouted from her back like firey wings. "SLAPPED A FUCKING BABY!!!" She screamed at the trees across the clearing. Several of them sheared clean through and fell.

"AND FUCKING DUMBLEDORE!!!" She roared. Several more trees exploded and wood splinters the size of javelins rocketed through the forest.

"FUCKING SNAPE!!" Craters blossomed in the clearing as explosions detonated rock and dirt alike.

"FUCKING RIDDLE!!" Viscous blue liquid showered everything off to the left as something that once lived vaporized.

"FUCKING!!!" Blazing white and wintergreen rage lanced through the forest and set it burning.

"KILL!!!" Harry spotted a pack of trolls as it turned and ran away from them as fast as their legs could go.

"YOU!!!" Trees that had already fallen and were on fire exploded and sent burning splinters into other trees.

"ALL!!!" Her final concussive blast flattened every tree around them for hundreds of meters, as though some unimaginably vast fist had descended from the sky and punched them flat.

She turned to look at him then, as tears streamed from her eyes. Her mouth opened to say something, but her eyes rolled up and she collapsed bonelessly into his arms.

He kissed her cheek and set her gently on the ground. "You're so beautiful." He whispered. He made sure all the fires were out and the forest wasn't about to burn down. When that was done, he picked her up, carried her inside and put her to bed. She would be hungry when she woke, so he also stopped into the kitchens for a couple of steaks.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Wings folded tight to her body, she swam. Her massive tail swung lazily back and forth as she arrowed through the water and enjoyed the feeling. Her mate swam next to her, she could feel his presence - powerful, reliable, desirable. They would have beautiful, powerful Young, and part of her ached for that. She knew there was plenty of time before that to enjoy being alone with him, so she let their Young stay in the future a while yet.

She breached the surface and took a breath, but it smelled foul. Something rotted and _wrong_ floated on the wind. Rage and power welled up within her as she turned toward the wind, to find the source of corruption. It came from her Nest and her Mate - something diseased and hateful clung to him as he fought it.

She dove again and swam toward her Nest like a missile. She would show whatever dared befoul her Nest the limitless depths of her rage. She surfaced again, ready to breathe oblivion, but she no longer swam. She was not in the water, she was nowhere near her island or her Nest. Instead, she lay upon another of those strange, soft animal-hoards. Her Mate was near, she could smell him. He had prepared meat for her.

She rolled off the too-soft pinkskin thing and crossed the Nest to him. She nuzzled his head and purred.

"You care for my needs, Hidden Colours. I am grateful." She hissed.

"Always." He purred and nuzzled her in return. "Eat, you are hungry."

"I am." She picked up a piece of meat, and brought it to her waiting maw, only to discover something strange had happened to her talons. "What is this?" She asked him. He did not seem to think anything was amiss, he was calm, so whatever it was it was not cause for alarm... was it?

"You mean your talons?" He cocked his head slightly.

"They are soft... fleshy... like a pinkskin."

He laughed. "We are both pinkskins, my Mate. We are both Svurtr as well. You used too much power and required sleep, the pinkskin part of you is still there. You are normally a pinkskin, just as I am. See me."

She looked at him again, and he was dark, glistening with power, but... soft at the same time. She tried to focus her eyes just on his shell, and he resolved into a pinkskin. Her browridges fell and she hissed in surprise.

"Be at peace, my Mate. It is not so strange. Your name is Hermione. My name is Harry. Do you not recall?"

How could such a thing...? She focused on the babbling sounds he made with his mouth, and they were familiar... There was something... She had stalked him as a ghost. Kept him safe from other females. Desired him. He had saved her. Changed her. Loved her.

"Harry?" She said in English.

"There you are. I know you feel strange, I've been there. Eat the steak, and lie back down, you'll feel better I promise you." He replied in English as well.

"I do feel strange. Confused. What happened?"

"If I tell you you'll remember and get angry again instead of eating and resting. Eat. Rest. I'll tell you when you wake."

She growled at him, annoyed at his presumption.

"And before you give me any shit and start calling me ' _male_ ' again, I'm your Mate, beautiful. I have your best interests in my mind and heart, so just leave off and eat."

She frowned at him and ate the steak. The flavour of it electrified her tongue and took her mind away from the annoying male. She took the plate from him and stuffed her mouth full, and only chewed enough to get it down her neck. When the plate was empty, she shoved it back at him and he took it with both hands. She grabbed his front and snogged his annoyingly hot smug grin, then dropped him and climbed back on the overly-soft resting place.

He crossed the Nest to nuzzle her gently while he purred. He kissed her forehead and left to let her rest.

She woke later to find his naked body cradling her own, warm and comforting. She nuzzled deeper into him and relaxed with a sigh.

She woke again to find him gone. The room was bright, and she felt well rested. She sat up, and spotted him immediately at the dinner table, writing on parchment. He looked up when she moved, and left what he was doing to come to her. She held her arms out to him and he entered them with a smile.

"How do you feel?" He asked.

"I feel good, actually. I'd feel better if you were naked."

Harry whipped his T-shirt off and undid the buckle to his belt as she reached out to undo the button and zipper. His pants and underwear hit the floor and he bounded over her and under the covers while she giggled. She wrapped herself around him and ran her hands over his chest.

"Mmmm. Definitely better."

She rose up on one elbow and half-lay on top of him, breasts against his chest as she sought his mouth with hers. The taste of him, the feel of his lips and tongue started her engine running...

Then she remembered.

She pulled back from him, his lower lip between her teeth and a growl in her throat. He opened his eyes and frowned at her expression.

"What? What is it?" He asked, concern in his voice.

"Fucking Dumbledore." She said through clenched teeth. "I just remembered."

"And that's another moment he's ruined." Harry smiled and winked at her.

She kissed him again, with a promise for later. "Sorry."

"No worries, Hermione." He twirled her hair around one of his fingers. "As it happens I had some things I want us to do today, if you feel up to it - regarding the whole Dumbledore thing, I mean."

"I didn't sleep another two days this time did I?"

"No, it's Sunday, about quarter past nine." Harry clambered out of bed and began to dress again.

"Oh good. What are we doing then?"

"I made a list. Go shower, I'll get you some breakfast, and you can evaluate it while you eat."

She sat up as well, and pulled him to her by his hipbones to kiss his stomach before she stood and kissed his mouth.

"I love you, Harry." She said as she hugged him and held him.

"I love you too, Hermione. We'll get this shit taken care of, then get back to the important things."

She nodded, a look of determination in her eyes. "Damn right, we have studying to do. And other things." She grabbed his behind and squeezed with both hands.

He laughed and smacked her behind when she walked past him into their new bathroom with a satisfied smile on her lips.

He had a plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, pastries and fruit waiting for her when she was dressed.

"So let's see the list." She said between mouthfuls.

He smiled at her and handed it to her, then went back to what he was doing.

**1\. Neville's parents - It's reasonable to assume that St. Mungo's has done everything they can for them, so any spellwork we can try would likely have been done, and done better by the professionals. That said, they haven't tried living dragon blood. If we Resonate and feed them... seven drops? It might be enough to force them to heal themselves without changing them. Worth a shot.**

**2\. Horcruxes - Dumbledore's conversations with Slughorn about Tom is enough to make him suspect that Tom made multiple horcruxes. We need to find out more about horcruxes and then start finding Tom's and destroying them. Thought we could check the restricted section today.**

**3\. Dumbledore's plans - Do we simply thwart him? Hide you and Luna away so that they can't get to you? Or publically isolate me and make everyone think I hate both of you in order to keep you safe?**

**4\. Death Eaters - Capture them and give them to Ministry for trial or kill them all? Can't bankroll Tom or hurt people if they're dead. Can't do either if they're in jail, but the ministry could confiscate their land and vaults if they go to trial, and I don't think that's much better than funding Tom.**

**5\. Tom - Apparently I'm the only one who can kill him, but that means getting him to stay in one place. He's not stupid, he'll run if he's in danger. Need to research anti-apparition wards. Bonus: Apparently Death eaters already know them and have used them in the past. Should make researching them easier.**

"That's a good start." She said when she'd finished reading. "Hop to St. Mungo's, then start searching through the restricted section?"

"That's what I was thinking." Harry nodded.

"The bit about Luna - you think he'd kill her if I wasn't available?"

"You know he would. He'll do whatever it takes to preserve his 'Greater Good'."

"True. Can't we just kill him now and be done with it?"

"Love to. We'll have to make it look like an accident though, well enough to fool Aurors. I don't think we have time to research Auror methods thoroughly enough to accomplish it within a reasonable time frame."

"Hm. Fair point. Why seven drops?"

"I used three on Darcy once after she got hurt by a grindylow. It was just enough to heal cuts and scrapes. Seven is the next magically significant number, and the Longbottom's damage is in their brains and nervous systems, so three likely wouldn't do the job. I don't want to risk any more than seven in case it starts changing them."

"So we have a reasonable suspicion it will work, good. Let's go then, I want to get cracking on the horcrux issue."

Dumbledore had visited the Longbottoms in the Janus Thickey ward a few times, so they knew their way there. Luckily Frank and Alice had a room to themselves, so Harry simply shut the door behind them and sealed it to prevent being disturbed.

Hermione cast a privacy shell around the four of them anyway, and Harry smiled at her.

"You do Frank, I'll do Alice?" She asked quietly.

"Seems appropriate, yeah." He kissed the side of her head and began to Resonate. "I think Neville favors his Mum a bit."

Hermione stopped and looked at both Frank and Alice. "Seems so. He's his dad around the eyes though."

"I think you're right. Hope this works, maybe we'll see them in the castle at some point."

"That would be nice." Hermione began to Resonate as well, and reached out to lay Alice's head back against a pillow with her mouth open. Alice showed no signs of cognizance at all, it was as though she were a living doll - poseable, but empty. It gave her an idea.

Harry did the same thing to Frank, then looked over at Hermione, who looked over at him. They nodded to each other once, and pushed their magics into their fingertips. They sliced their fingertips open with a spell, and each dripped seven drops of magic-infused blood onto the Longbottoms' tongues.

Each of their fingers bled a little more than seven drops, but they just stuck their fingers in their own mouths until the cuts had healed.

"We should go before they wake up, if they're going to." Hermione said softly.

Harry held out his hand to her, and they quietly left the Longbottoms' room.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Lammy appeared as they finished the day's homework and began review of the next day's material. She handed Harry a folded piece of parchment.

"Thanks, Lammy. How is your day?"

"Excellent, thank you." Lammy smiled. "After your letter to Mister Sirius this morning, we've been scouting the locations you told us about. Both places are filled with bad magic."

"You didn't go in, I hope? Everyone is safe?" Hermione asked.

"No, Missus. No-one went in. Everyone is safe."

"Good, thank you for that. Please carry our thanks to everyone else as well. We really appreciate your help, that's a whole day we don't have to take from our studies." Harry said with a grin.

"Happy to help." Lammy smiled back. "That's what friends are for." She Disapparated.

"Well, we have a place to start then." Hermione sighed in relief. "Our meeting at Institut fur Magie is nine in the morning on Saturday. Shall we head there afterward?"

"Sounds like a date." He winked at her. His brain chose that moment to remind him that Valentine's day was less than two weeks away, and he resolved to make that a day Hermione wouldn't soon forget.

Hermione's face scrunched into a sour expression. "No. If you wanted to _ask_ me on a date -"

"Would you go on a date with me? Please?"

Hermione flashed a hint of a smile and restrained it just as quickly, but Harry could see her eyes sparkle. "What _kind_ of date?"

"Sightseeing? Shopping? Dinner and dancing? Something nice. A Proper Date date."

A hint of surprise showed in her eyes. "Very well, I accept. When?"

Harry did some mental calculation. "Twelve days from now."

She frowned. "I like the Valentine's date idea, but that's a long time to wait."

"Would you accept a Hogsmeade date this Sunday as a tide-me-over?"

She brightened. "I would."

He grinned at her. "Brilliant, thank you. I'll look forward to that." He closed his text and rose from his chair, then took his wand out and tapped it on the stone door.

"Where are you going?" Hermione frowned at him, and a tiny note of panic crept into her voice.

"I have some research to do, and before you get up, you can't come. It's _for_ you, so you can't know about it. A couple of conversations, and I'll be back before you know it."

Hermione frowned and pouted at the same time. "Grr." She said.

He winked and blew her a kiss before he shut the door behind him. It was after dinner but before Astronomy class, so he reasoned that Fleur and Arielle would likely be in the Beauxbatons carriage, which was on the opposite side of the castle.

He walked through the halls toward four B, as the staircase there led almost straight down to the front hall. Unfortunately, as he passed their ersatz holding cell, he heard sobs from inside. He quietly opened the door and stuck his head inside.

Colin sat at one of the desks in the back of the room, head down on his arms as he cried.

Harry stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind him. "Don't mean to interrupt," He said softly, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Colin's head jerked up, his eyes wide and red, his cheeks dripped with tears. "Dammit." He swore under his breath. He took a deep breath and wiped his face, and tried to appear in control.

"I'll go if you prefer to be alone." Harry said.

Colin's face quivered with the tears he held back. His lips pressed together, but he shook his head. Harry crossed the room and sat next to him.

"Anything I can do to help?"

Colin barked a bitter laugh and wiped his nose. "Not unless you can magically move my family to a different country."

"That sounds serious."

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" Colin's eyes pleaded with him.

Harry shook his head. "I can't do that, I have no secrets from Hermione. I can promise I won't tell anyone but her though."

Colin nodded. "I can live with that." He sucked in a big breath and let it out. "It started at the Yule Ball. I asked Pansy to be my date -"

"Pansy Parkinson?" Harry's eyebrows raised.

Colin nodded. "Yeah. She's so pretty. I thought she'd laugh at me, but I didn't want to regret not asking later. She said yes, though. It was the best night of my life, and we didn't even get to dance. Halfway through dessert she just attacked me, started licking my tonsils, and dragged me out of the Great Hall."

"That's a bit of a surprise."

"You're not kidding. She stuffed me into a _broom closet_. I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world." Colin fingered something in his pocket that crinkled like paper as he remembered. Harry just waited for him to continue. His own experience in a broom closet had been incredible and incredibly embarrassing, so he had a great deal of sympathy.

"We... had sex." Colin said softly. "Like, six times. I should have known though, nothing that good happens to me. She moaned about how good she felt the whole time, and I -" He paused to breathe deeply and wipe his eyes again. "I thought that was it, she was the one for me."

"But?" Harry asked gently.

"She wouldn't talk to me when we got back to school. Wouldn't even look at me."

"Ouch."

Colin pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket then and handed it to Harry. "I got this at breakfast this morning."

Harry opened the semi-crumpled note.

**You potioned me, you fucking shit-blood rapist. Well, you got what you wanted, and now I'm pregnant. Congratulations. When I tell my father he's going to kill your whole family.**

"Wow." Harry breathed. "No hostility there at all. You didn't potion anyone, of course. Did you?"

"No! I would never!"

"I didn't think so. Had to ask. Brolly!"

Brolly appeared next to Harry, and Colin's spine jerked straight in surprise.

"Brolly, would you please ask the others who were at the Yule Ball if there was any sneakiness with potions?"

Brolly shook his head. "Don't need to, Mister Harry. Apart from the double Weasleys wot put firewhiskey in the punch, there was only one potion-related sneaky thing."

"What was it?"

Brolly nodded at Colin. "It were young master's date. She put potion in Miss Luna's Wayne's cup, so I switched cups with him and her what done it so she would drink her own potion."

"You protected Luna? Why didn't you tell us?" Harry frowned.

Brolly looked dismayed. "Mister and Missus were very busy, and when you weren't busy... I forgot. Sorry."

Harry put a hand on Brolly's shoulder. "It's okay, thank you for letting me know now. You're absolutely right, we were very busy. I can't be upset about that. You know how to write, don't you Brolly?"

Brolly nodded.

"Great. In the future if Hermione and I are busy, would you please write down what you have to tell us so we can read it as soon as we're not busy?"

Brolly nodded and smiled. "I can do that."

"Great, thanks mate. I won't keep you then, say hi to the others for us."

"I will." He nodded and vanished with a soft _pop_.

Colin looked at Harry, still not quite believing what just happened. "What... who...?"

"That's Brolly, he's a House Elf. He and a few like him took pictures for us at the Ball... And apparently used Pansy's own potion against her."

"So you're to thank for the photos."

"And the situation you're in, apparently."

Colin shook his head. "No. Pansy tried to do that to Wayne, so he would... hurt Luna. Pansy is to blame."

"I share some small portion then. Brolly could have just vanished the cup with the potion in it. Instead..."

"Well then it's Brolly's blame, not yours." Colin frowned.

"Brolly answers to me. He was there because I asked him to be. It's my responsibility. I'm sorry this happened, Colin, and I'll see what I can do to put it right. For right now though, we should get your family out of Britain. How many of you are there?"

"Just me, Dennis, and my dad. Mum passed a few years ago."

"Alright, I'm off to kidnap your dad then. Parkinson won't do anything to you or Dennis while you're here. I'll get your dad safe, then we'll have time to figure out something more permanent."

"Wait, kidnap my dad? He'd really kill my dad?"

"Without a second thought. He'll be safe at our house, though. There's plenty to read and good company. I'll be back in a bit."

Harry hurried from the classroom and back to their apartment. Hermione was still slightly put out until he told her he never made it where he'd intended to go. She listened as he explained the situation, and then agreed with his course of action.

"You go get his father, I'll go talk to Colin. He's still in four B?"

"Hope so, he was when I left there."

They kissed, just a quick peck, when they reached the stairs. Hermione headed to four B, Harry up the stairs to the Owlery. He had quietly gotten a picture of Colin's home from his mind, and as soon as he had flown beyond the school wards, he Apparated there. Colin shared a room with his brother, and Harry appeared between the two beds. He could hear the telly on in another room, so he headed in that direction. Mister Creevey sat on a threadbare sofa and watched telly while he ate a meat pie.

"Here now!" He shouted with his mouth full, "Who the bleedin' -" that was all he got out before Harry Petrified him.

"Sorry Mister Creevey, we don't have time to talk just now. I'm a friend of Colin's, I'm taking you to my place where you'll be safe. You're in a bit of danger just now." Harry said as he crossed the room and put his hand on Mister Creevey's shoulder. He Resonated, and Apparated them both to the Glen, then picked Mister Creevey up and carried him inside and wrote him into the Wards' guest book.

Mister Creevey crumpled when Harry removed the binding on him. "Crikey, you're a magical."

Harry held out his hand with a smile. "Duncan MacFusty. Pleasure to meet you, I'm a friend of Colin and Dennis."

Mister Creevey shook his hand. "Fenton Creevey. I think Dennis talked 'bout you a time or twelve."

Harry quietly cast _Accio_ on the Assets Ledger, and tucked it under his arm when it arrived.

"Nice to meet you, Mister Creevey. I have to get back to school, I apologize for the disturbance. There's been a threat made on your life, that's why I brought you here. You'll be safe here. I'll bring Colin by tomorrow to explain everything, but you won't be able to leave here at least until then."

"That won't please the boss come sunup." He frowned.

"You may be leaving the country quite soon, Mister Creevey, so that's the least of your worries. Relax here, I don't think there's any real trouble you can get into here. There are other... magicals around as well, short strange-looking people. They're elves. They're wonderfully nice, and they're part of the family. If you need anything, just ask one of them.'

"I can't just skip work. I have to call in at least."

Harry nodded. "I understand. Polly!"

Polly appeared next to him.

"Polly, Mister Creevey needs a working cellular phone. Would you please visit Kneescythe and have him procure one, then bring it to Mister Creevey right away?"

Polly nodded. "Right away, Mister Harry. It's nice to see you home again." Polly hugged his waist and Disapparated.

"Cor, must be nice to be wicked posh."

"it's all new to me this year, but so far it's very handy." Harry grinned. "See you tomorrow, Mister Creevey." Harry stuck out his hand, and Mister Creevey shook it again, then Harry Apparated to the clearing in the forbidden forest and flew back to the Owlery.

Hermione and Colin were still in four B when he returned.

"Your dad's safe at our place. We'll take you to him tomorrow so you can explain what's going on.

"Thank you both. At least my dad won't have to pay for my mistakes."

"Talk to you after breakfast then, yeah?" Harry put a hand on Colin's shoulder. Colin nodded, and left the room to head back to Gryffindor tower.

"So... that was a bit unexpected." Harry said.

"Part of me wants to go yell at Parkinson right now, stupid bint. She's getting what she deserves, but she's hurting Colin because of it."

"She was trying to hurt Luna. I want to go tear her apart. Instead I have to be somewhat kind to her, and it makes me angry." Harry clenched his fists.

"Me too. I'm glad you're looking at the big picture though. I know you could never harm a child, even hers." She smiled at him and put her hand on his, and he relaxed his fist to hold her hand.

"You're very calm, considering." He said as he blew a breath out his nose in frustration.

"Just keeping my anger where it belongs. Dumbledore. Death Eaters. Riddle." Hermione smiled like a shark.

"Pansy's father is a Death Eater."

"I know. We'll get to him. I don't want to make a mistake that will send him and others like him into hiding. We'll figure out some way to get them all in one place at one time and then just burn them all."

He touched his forehead to hers. "Queen of Hunters." He smiled.

She smiled back at him. "They infect our territory. They need to be purged." She said succinctly.

"Britain is our Territory now?" He asked with a grin.

"For now." She said primly. "I may want more later."

Harry laughed.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Wolly hated watching duty. The whole family hated watching duty, but it was Wolly's turn, so Wolly in particular hated it. Mister and Missus said it was important so it was important, but Wolly's heart broke for the poor elves forced to serve the Parkinson wizard. Luckily the Parkinson hadn't done anything all morning, so the poor elves didn't need to be near him. The Parkinson had done so little that morning that Wolly hadn't even had to write anything down. All he had on his page was:

**Woke up. Ate breakfast. Used loo.**

Thankfully they weren't required to watch when he was in the loo or bed or shower or anytime they might be disgusted.

The bad transport place flared green then, and a girl stepped out. She looked to be about Missus' age, but she wasn't tall or powerful like Missus. This girl shared some traits with the Parkinson, so Wolly thought she must be his daughter. He noted that down on his page.

"Father." The girl said in greeting. Wolly grinned and confirmed his suspicion on his page.

The Parkinson frowned at the girl. "Why are you here? You're meant to be securing Malfoy's brat."

"Something happened at the Yule Ball." The girl growled angrily.

"Something?"

"I was potioned."

"And?" He frowned, displeased at her lack of information.

"I'm pregnant."

He smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Not the way I was anticipating you securing the boy, but it definitely works. Well done."

"It wasn't Draco."

For a fat old man, Parkinson was on his feet in a flash. Even Wolly was surprised. "Who was it then?" He asked, his voice soft and dangerous.

The girl stood firm, still angry herself, but Wolly could see the fear behind it. "It was a nobody. Creevey. I want his whole family wiped out."

The fat old man laughed, and crossed the room to stand in front of the girl. "So you thought you would come to dear old Dad and demand I waste resources to murder a nobody because you FAILED YOUR ONLY TASK?!" The old man bellowed the last in her face. "You think you have any kind of chance to succeed now? You think Malfoy or his brat would even _look_ at you now? You wasted yourself on a _nobody_ , filled yourself with nobody spawn, and you think you still have _use_ to me?" The Parkinson pulled out his wand and flicked it at the girl.

She doubled over and flew backward into the stony mantel. A long, strangled cry came from her throat as she wrapped her arms around herself and struggled to breathe. He flicked his wand again, and she sailed upward into the ceiling where the plaster cracked and rained down around her as she hit the floor. Muffled cracks echoed around the room when she hit the floor.

"I suppose it's my fault for waiting to see if you had any competence instead of just cleaning house when your stupid pig of a mother betrayed me. I'll need another breeder now, I suppose." He flicked the wand again, and blood sprayed from her face as she spun in circles where she lay on the floor in a ball. Her hands went to her face as she screamed in pain.

"Oh, there's an idea." The Parkinson said as his face brightened. "Everyone knows Lucius likes boys, maybe I'll just go straight to the source and bed Narcissa. I might not even have to trick her! Ha ha!"

He flicked the wand again and more muffled cracks came from her side as she slid across the floor into the far wall.

"I will anyway, of course. Prudence. Yes, I think that will be the best course. More servants for the Dark Lord, _COMPETENT ones_!" He yelled at her. "Alis!"

One of those poor, sad elves popped into the room next to the Parkinson.

"Go take that worthless filth to the ravine and dump it on its mother. Then CLEAN UP THIS MESS!!" The Parkinson kicked poor Alis clear across the room to land next to the broken, bleeding girl.

Wolly made sure he had all the screaming and talkings written down, then followed Alis as she dumped the girl down the side of a ravine to land on a pile of stinking trash. He watched for a long moment, but the girl didn't move. She still breathed, she still bled, but she did not get up. She didn't even try to get up. Wolly danced from foot to foot and wrung his hands. What to do? Watch, as he'd been instructed? Or help because he knew they liked to help? What would Mister and Missus do?

That thought told him what he wanted to know. Mister and Missus would help. They would take the girl to healers. Wolly took a deep breath, then appeared next to the girl and took her to the healing place for witches and wizards.

  
  


* * *

  
  


'Their' room held a warm glow as the fire crackled in the hearth. It was still configured as their training room, but the magical barriers on the walls, floor, and ceiling weren't visible. Only the thickly cushioned wide mats on the floor on the far side indicated that the room was used for anything other than pleasant conversation.

Luna entered the room and closed the door behind her, then crossed to the sofa across from the one Harry and Hermione snuggled on.

"What's up?" She asked them, "Lammy said you wanted to talk."

"We do." Harry smiled at her, "But we're also waiting for Nev. Hermione and I found out some things that are going to impact our lives, and we wanted to share."

"Is it a baby?" Luna perked up. "I hope it's a baby! Yay naked things! I can't wait to be an Auntie."

Hermione smiled and unconsciously put her hands on her stomach while Harry blushed deep red and studied the far wall.

"No, not a baby, Luna. Not yet. I'm only fifteen, you know." Hermione smiled at her. Luna's face drooped into disappointment, but the twinkle never left her eye.

Neville entered and closed the door behind him then. Hermione took out her wand and sealed and silenced the door, floor, ceiling, and walls while Neville walked over to hug Luna and sat next to her.

"Lammy said you wanted to talk?" He said after he was seated.

Harry nodded and sat up to face the other two. Hermione sat back down next to him, though she looked a little put out that her snuggle session was over.

"We have discovered a few things that will change the rest of this year, we think." Harry began.

"It's not a baby." Luna said with a frown.

"Thank Merlin for that." Neville whispered. "I'm too young to be an uncle."

"And thank you for that. I fully agree." Harry sighed and looked pointedly at Luna.

Luna pouted. "Ruin my fun."

"Plenty of time for that fun, I've not even been out of Britain yet." Hermione asserted. "We'll keep you informed, of course - actually, would either of you be opposed to being godparents eventually?"

Luna shot off the sofa and crashed into Hermione with "Yeee!" sound.

"As long as it isn't before I finish school I'm not opposed, no." Neville said while he eyed the rocking hug the girls shared.

"Believe me, it won't be that soon. It won't even be years after that. Hermione and I have school to finish, Masteries to earn, and the Wizengamot to learn before we even think about taking time off for kids. You'll likely be a father before I am, and that's good, you're the older brother, after all." Harry quirked a corner of his mouth at Neville, who grinned in return.

Luna sat next to Hermione and didn't really let go of her. "I can't wait to be a mum." She said, "I want to do all the things my mum did for me... I think it will feel like she's still here then." She added softly.

"Aww," Hermione hugged Luna to her again. "You're going to be the _best_ mum, Luna. And I'm going to spoil her completely _rotten_."

Luna laughed and hugged her back. "Deal. You know I'm going to spoil all the baby Potters."

"Well that's something we agree on, then." Neville grinned.

"Traitor." Harry pouted. Neville's grin only grew sadistic.

"We need to find you a decent boy." Hermione decided with an extra hug. "Unfortunately, that will have to wait for a bit." She let go of Luna and looked around at Neville as well. "It turns out Voldemort isn't dead."

Silence owned the room for nearly a minute as that sentence penetrated their minds.

"You're sure." Neville said at last.

"Yes. I can't tell you how we found out because it wasn't strictly legal, and if you don't know you can't get in trouble for it. But... I trust that the information is true." Harry said sadly. "There's also a prophecy that says I'm the only one who can kill him."

"What?!" Neville sat up on the sofa, his face drawn in concern.

Luna just looked between Harry and Hermione.

"The prophecy says that Voldie will mark one of the children who might be the one to destroy him, and that will determine which child the prophecy is about." He reached up and pushed his long hair back from his forehead where it habitually hung, and made his scar visible.

" _Merlin_." Neville swore. "It's really going to be down to you to kill him then." He said softly.

'I don't mind that part, honestly." Harry said with a smile. "He and his followers are an infection in Britain. I'll be happy to cleanse the country before we bring children into it. I'm keen on peaceful coexistence, but they don't want that, so they have to go."

"I'm glad you're taking it so well." Neville grimaced, "I feel like I'm going to sick up."

"Just breathe deeply, mate." Harry said as he popped off the sofa to get Neville a glass of water from the table against the far wall.

"Thanks." Neville said as he took it.

"You're very... calm... about killing dozens of people, Harry. It's a bit worrying if I'm honest." Luna told him as a frown creased her forehead.

"It's a necessity, First Friend. That's all. You know I've been killing to eat my entire life, this is no different. The reason it's a necessity is different, that's true, but otherwise it's the same. It needs doing, so you do it. That's all."

"That's fine for you, but I _want_ to kill them all, including Dumbledore, for what they've done to you and your first family." Hermione growled.

"Okay, _that's_ going to need explaining. I don't know about Neville, but I feel like there's story I'm missing here." Luna frowned.

"Yeah, I'm with you." Neville nodded at her.

Harry sighed. "Alright then, from the beginning."

Hermione relaxed onto his side as he began, and told Neville and Luna the entire story from the beginning - how Dumbledore had arranged for Snape to 'overhear' the prophecy, knowing he would immediately give it to Voldemort. How Dumbledore had known Voldemort since he was a student at Hogwarts, and what his real name was. Neville got up and paced up and down the room while his fists clenched and unclenched when they told him how his parents had been ambushed while on a mission for the Order that only Dumbledore had known about.

"Alright, I understand now, thank you." Luna said. "I feel quite cross myself after hearing all that." Her brows stayed knit and her eyes hard.

"So that's what we'll be doing most weekends, is looking for those 'items' Tom left behind. If we can find them all and destroy them..." Harry said.

"Then when he shows himself you can just cut his head off and that's the end of it." Neville finished.

"That's the plan." Hermione nodded. "Then we can get on with the important things."

"Honestly the hardest part so far has been not killing Dumbledore immediately." Harry frowned.

"I'm amazed you're as calm as you are." Neville glowered. "I want to kill him for pointing the Lestranges at my parents. They _trusted_ that son of a -"

Wolly popped into the room in front of Harry and Hermione. His eyes were wide and he looked like he was afraid of them.

"Wolly? What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"Iwasonwatchdutyanddoingeverythingfinebut -"

"Whoa, slow down, Wolly." Hermione said soothingly. "Take a breath, relax."

Wolly nodded fervently and only slowed a fraction. "I was on watch duty just watching like I was supposed to, but then a girl came from the green fire hole and the man was shouting and using the wand on her and made his poor elf dump her on a trash heap. I'm sorry, I know I should be on duty watching, but I thought 'what would Mister and Missus do?', so I took the girl to the healing place and came to tell you straight away."

Harry looked at Hermione, who looked at Harry. Then Harry turned back to Wolly.

"Wolly." He said. Wolly trembled and hung his head. "You did everything wonderfully. Thank you. That is exactly what we would do." They both reached out and hugged Wolly.

"Could I read your notes?" Hermione asked. Wolly gleefully handed her the small pad of parchment. "Thank you. Go on home and relax, you can tell everyone else they don't need to do watch duty anymore. Well done, Wolly." She smiled at him.

"Just for that, we'll have extra duties for you in the next little while." Harry clapped the elf on the shoulder lightly, and Wolly grinned hugely.

"Thank you Mister and Missus!" He squeaked, and Disapparated.

Hermione scanned his notes and swore under her breath. Harry read over her shoulder. When they were finished, she handed it to Luna, and Neville read over her shoulder.

"I'll go collect Colin, meet you at the front gates?" Harry asked Hermione. She nodded.

"Merlin's bloated barnacles." Neville swore.

"I hate Pansy, but this is actually making me feel sorry for her." Luna said sadly.

"I hate her too, but I know how it feels to have no-one." Hermione agreed.

"Let us know if we can do anything." Neville offered.

"You'll be the first, as always." Harry smiled in return.

Colin was doing homework in the Library when Harry found him and whispered "Grab your jacket, we have to go."

Colin started, then saw that it was Harry, and packed up his things. It took a few minutes to get back to the Gryffindor dorms so Colin could get his coat, but they made decent time. Hermione was only _almost_ pacing back and forth in front of the gate when they arrived. She Resonated as they approached, and grabbed them both as soon as they were outside the wards.

"Whoa!" Colin exploded when they appeared outside St. Mungo's. "I never Apparated before, that was awesome!"

"Study Group will work on that later. Come on." Harry motioned him inside, and Colin recognized the place as a hospital.

'What's going on? Why are we at a hospital?"

"Pansy was attacked." Harry told him before he walked in to talk to the Welcome Witch.

Colin's face hardened as he frowned. "I don't see why -"

"Her own father tried to kill her." Hermione said, tension in her voice.

Colin's face wavered between 'serves her right' and 'that's horrible' for a moment, then he took a deep breath and nodded. Hermione followed him inside.

"Third floor, intensive care." Harry said quietly when they caught up to him, and they trooped up the stairs to the third floor. Signs labeled the different wards, and it only took them a moment to find intensive care. There were only three people in intensive care, and Pansy was the only girl.

"I'm going to go ask how she is." Harry said quietly, and went up the hall toward the duty station.

Hermione stayed near Colin, as though she sensed he was both nervous and conflicted. He looked back at her and thanked her silently as they walked toward Pansy's bed.

She was unrecognizable.

Both her eyes were swollen shut, her nose and mouth were barely more than inflated rolls of skin. Jagged ruptures covered both her cheeks that slowly healed as potions were magically infused into her body. A wide wooden tube kept her lips apart to let her breathe, but her breathing was shallow and raspy.

"Merlin..." Colin whispered. "Her own father..." His face went slack and pale, his eyes filled with horror. The very air around the boy went still as the sight sank deep into his mind. He realized that she was the way she was for a reason, and that reason was not good.

Colin knew his father loved him. It was the foundation he stood on. What would he be like without that solid footing? Who would he be? Would he even know how wrong he was?

He saw her face again in his mind's eye as it had been at the Ball, and he recognized now the hardness in her eyes. He hadn't at the time, he had only enjoyed how it had softened as the night had progressed. He had been gobsmacked at her behaviour in the dark, and had been content to imagine the look in her eyes from the emotion in her voice. He had thought she had just really liked him, but that happiness had evaporated and left a residue of shame at his own conceit. Strangely, he discovered no regret along with the shame.

"The healers think she'll be fine in a few days." Harry said quietly. "If she hadn't gotten here as quickly as she did, it would have been worse. She's had a Dreamless Sleep potion, so she probably won't wake up until tomorrow. They had to regrow most of her bones."

To Hermione, he whispered "Remind me to give Wolly a medal, he saved her life."

"He did. Not sure it should be rewarded, though. We can discuss it later." She whispered back.

Colin stood at Pansy's side and held her hand. "The baby?" He asked.

"The healer said it should be fine. If it had been any bigger than it is, it might not have survived." Harry answered.

Colin found himself relieved and strangely happy. He looked up at Harry and Hermione. "I'm gonna be a dad." He said with a hint of a smile and a lot of shock. Then his face slowly fell into a frown. "I'm gonna be a dad..." He whispered. "I need to get my O.W.L.s done!" The whites of his eyes began to grow larger. "I need to find a job! Merlin's hairy underpants, I'm gonna be a dad!"

Harry's hand slipped around Hermione's, and she shot him a small smile.

"We can help get you set for your O.W.L.s, that was the purpose of Study Group anyway." Harry told Colin.

"Depending where you want to live, maybe your dad could help with you getting a job." Hermione offered. "If you want to stay in Britain -"

"No, if I can convince her to come to Australia I think that would be better. I'll never be able to repay you for getting Dad that job. Thank you again. I think Pansy... I think we have a lot of talking to do." Colin looked back to Pansy's slowly healing face. "I should have brought my bookbag, darn it."

"I'll bring it to you if you want." Harry offered.

Colin's eyebrows raised. "I... would appreciate that, thank you. I think I'd like to stay with her. Be here when she wakes."

"Like you were for me." Hermione whispered. Harry squeezed her hand gently.

"Anything else you want? School stuff? Change of clothes? Toothbrush?" Harry asked.

"Actually, all that would be brilliant. Why are you being so nice? You don't owe me anything." Colin said with a small shake of his head.

"He's not _being_ nice." Hermione said with a smile. "He just is." She squeezed his hand back.

"We'll bring your bag to you and ask Wolly to hang around in case you need anything else, like a lift back to school."

Colin seemed to relax at that. "That's brilliant, thank you so much. First my dad, now me."

Harry smiled. "Like I said, I share some responsibility for the situation - so if I can help, you can be sure I will."

Colin smiled at that. "Thanks, Duncan. Thank you both."

Harry nodded. "Just call for Wolly if you need anything, hopefully we'll see you in a couple of days."

Colin nodded in return before Harry and Hermione turned and left the ward.

"You're thinking this will change Parkinson, aren't you?" Harry asked her when they got outside.

"If her own father hadn't tried to kill her, I'd say no. She's spent her whole life as a pureblood and being told she's better than anyone else because of it. The fact that her father did try to kill her might show her how empty that is. She might understand. She might not. I hope she does for Colin's sake, but I want nothing to do with her either way. I see her laughing at me when I look at her."

"I'm waiting to see what happens as well. If she can change, if she does understand, then it may not be necessary to kill the adolescents themselves. At least not all of them. On the other hand, I want to kill her for laughing at you too."

Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her lips. "Enough about them. I want all your time, and all your attention." She smiled playfully.

"Good." He smiled back. "I love it when you want more." He nuzzled her neck.

She nuzzled him back. "Come on, we have to get things done before we can sneak off for the rest of the night."

Harry wrapped his arms around her as he Resonated, and took them back to school.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Neville stood dumbfounded, unable to move or speak or think as his eyes overflowed and made the world wavy. He felt his Gran's hand clamp around his shoulder as a strangled sob escaped her throat.

He'd had no idea why they'd been summoned to St. Mungo's, and neither had Gran. Naturally, they'd thought his parents had finally given up and died. Neville had spent the whole trip there being relieved and hating himself for it. Never once had the scene in front of him entered his mind.

"Nevvy?" The frail, too-thin woman asked as her hand went to cover her mouth.

Neville's spine rippled as the sound entered his brain. She _had_ called him Nevvy. He'd forgotten. He'd forgotten the sound of her voice, too.

His mother took careful step after careful step until she was close enough, and threw her spindly arms around him.

"My boy." She sobbed quietly. He wrapped his arms around her gently as well and cradled her while her tears fell on his shirt. "I missed it all, Nevvy. I'm so sorry, sweetie. I'm so sorry."

"Mum..." Neville squeezed her as tightly as he thought he could without hurting her. He could feel her ribs and spine. "It's really you."

Alice smiled up at Neville through her tears and put her hand on his cheek. "It's both of us, son. You've grown up so handsome, just like your father."

His father shuffled over and hugged Gran. "Thanks for looking after Nev for us, Mum."

Gran just hugged his dad and didn't trust her voice.

"Are you coming home, Mum?" Neville asked. The thought of having his parents at home put a ball of energy in his chest and made him want to scream and dance and laugh.

Frank looked back into their room where two of the healers deliberated with their heads together. "Do we get to go home?" He asked them.

One of the healers, a thin man with a moustache, looked up at them. "Sorry, say again?"

"I asked if we get to go home." Frank repeated.

"Oh! Yes, sorry. You have your exercises and your potions, just keep up with both and you should be fine in a month or so."

"How?" His Gran asked the healer. "What happened?"

"That is a great question. If you ever find out do let me know, would you?" The healer said with a smile. "If we could replicate it, I'd be out of a job, and that would be wonderful."

"The best we have so far is 'Magic wanted them healed'. My advice would be to go enjoy life while you can. And come back next month for a check-up, so we can monitor your progress. Please." The other healer added. He too wore a kind smile.

"I could use a bath and a meal, and then I want to hear everything we've missed." Alice hugged Frank's mother and then took Neville's arm.

"I'll second that." Frank smiled at his wife. "You definitely need a bath."

"Frank!" Alice frowned and swatted his shoulder feebly.

Frank laughed and held his arm out for his mother, and they began the walk to the lobby. They had to stop and rest twice on the way, the stairs really took the energy out of them. For Neville, it was over far too soon. He had to get back to school, no matter how much he wanted to spend the next few weeks with his parents. He also had a sneaking suspicion he needed to talk to Harry and Hermione about his parents' sudden recovery.

They used the floo in the lobby. Neville went through first, and it was a good thing he had, he had to catch his parents as they came out. Thankfully, his daily training had made him stronger and faster, so he had no trouble catching them delicately.

Frank and Alice headed for their bedroom immediately, presumably to wash and dress properly, so Neville busied himself preparing a lunch.

Augusta followed him into the kitchen.

"Can I get you anything, Gran? Tea?"

"No thank you, Neville. Did you know?"

"Did I know?" He frowned. "About Mum and Dad you mean?" He shook his head. "I went in there today thinking I'd have to bury them this weekend."

She patted his arm, and hugged him when he turned. "I'm so happy for us, Neville. I've not been this happy since you were born."

"I still can't believe it either, Gran. It's like waking up after a nightmare." He took a deep breath and let it out, then smiled at Gran briefly before his mind took him to wondering if he should ask to be present at Dumbledore's death.

"That's it - right there. I know that look." Augusta stabbed a finger at him from the kitchen table. "You know something."

Neville scowled in exasperation. Never could keep anything from Gran. Nobody could.

"I know who's responsible for them being that way - and I don't mean the Lestranges. Any more than that isn't my secret to tell."

Augusta's eyes narrowed and her voice cracked like a whip. "Who?" She demanded.

"Who else could free the Lestranges? Who else could have told them where Mum and Dad would be? When I tell you, you'll wonder how you never put it together yourself. I think there might be a spell involved."

"Who was it, Neville?" She asked again, almost pleading.

"Dumbledore." He said. If he hadn't been looking right into her eyes he might have missed it, but there was a tiny flash of light that accompanied Gran's sharp intake of breath.

"Merlin's balls." She swore as her eyebrows collided. "You're right, I would never have even thought of his name. Can you prove it?"

Neville shook his head. "No. A schoolmate of mine who studies Legilimensy took it from Dumbledore's own memories. I know he's right, but there is no proof."

"Shit. Shit shit shit shit!" Augusta's whole face grew angrier and angrier with each curse, and she stared down at the tabletop as she slammed it with her fist.

"This schoolmate... do you know him well?" She asked after a moment, and her head swiveled to look at him.

Neville grinned. "I can honestly say he's my best mate."

"Good! How soon do you think you can get him here?"

That made Neville frown. As much as he would love to have Harry and Hermione visit, he knew they didn't have a lot of free time, especially now. He shrugged. "He and his wife are always really busy, but I can ask."

"His wife!?" Augusta's voice rose in disbelief.

Neville nodded. "Magic decided they were married before Christmas."

"Now I really want to meet them."

"Like I said, they're probably busy, but I'll ask. Lammy!"

Lammy appeared with a soft bang in front of Neville. "Hi Lammy, thanks for coming." He smiled at her.

"Hello Mister Neville, thanks for calling. I can do something for you, I hope?"

Augusta's eyes bulged as she took in Lammy's straight ears, pleated skirt and crisp white blouse.

"I'm hoping so, Lammy. I was hoping your Mister and Missus could join us here for a few minutes? My gran would like to meet them. Gran, this is Lammy, Lammy, my Gran."

Lammy turned and bowed to Augusta. "Lady Longbottom, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She turned back to Neville then. "I will go ask, Mister Neville, and be right back."

Lammy Disapparated with another soft _pop_.

"What was _that_?!" Gran demanded as soon as Lammy had gone.

"That's Lammy. She's part of their family. She used to be a normal House Elf, but when she bonded to them..."

"Now I _really_ want to meet them."

"Oh fiddlesticks! I need to go add them to the Wards again!" Neville rushed into the main hall and quickly wrote Duncan and Hermione MacFusty into the ward book - this time as recurring guests.

Neville's parents entered the kitchen slowly and took a seat at the table across from Augusta, so Neville served them tea.

"How you liking school, Nev?" His dad asked after taking a sip. "You must have a girlfriend by now, right?"

"School's alright Dad, it's a bit of a hassle if I'm honest, but there isn't any better way to learn. And yes, I'm courting Daphne Greengrass. That conversation will have to wait though, as we're expecting guests any -"

Harry and Hermione appeared silently next to Neville.

"Oh! Hello." Frank said, surprised.

"Hello!" Harry replied. "Sorry Nev, I didn't think you were at home, or we'd have used the door." He turned back to Frank. "Nice to see you up and about, Lord and Lady Longbottom."

Alice smiled. "It's nice to _be_ up and about, thank you."

"Dunc, Hermione, these are my parents Frank and Alice, and my grandmother Augusta. Family, this is Duncan and Hermione MacFusty, the best friends anyone could ever ask for."

Harry grinned at Neville. "Nev, you're so smooth. Save it for Daphne, mate." He bowed to Neville's family. "A pleasure to meet you all..." He stood up and looked to Hermione with one eyebrow raised.

She nodded back to him. "They're all clean. The whole place is clean."

"Thanks love. As I was saying, it's a pleasure to meet you all, This is my brilliant wife Hermione. My official name is Duncan MacFusty, as the MacFustys took me in, but you can all call me Harry, Harry Potter."

  
  



	14. Chapter 14

  
  


Everything hurt. _Everything_ hurt. She rose to consciousness with the reluctance of a prisoner climbing the gallows stairs. Her ribs hurt too much to breathe heavily, let alone groan with the pain. Her face hurt too much to wince at the pain in her face. Was she in the infirmary? What happened? She tried to breathe shallowly through the pain, enough to ask for Madam Pomfrey, but the pain in her stomach triggered her memory.

Baby. Father. Pain. Trash. The smell of mother's long-decomposed corpse.

She was broken. She was nobody. Where was she? Was she dead? No, she hurt too much to be dead. She was distantly aware then that someone held her right hand. Someone was next to her. It wouldn't be father. It wouldn't be anyone from school. Maybe Millicent at an outside chance, but she was more cunning than she let on, so likely not. Her neck hurt too much to turn and look.

A voice came from her right side, low and soothing, and it did soothe her, sort of. It was nice to know someone - anyone - was there. She would be on her own now, another lost girl with a child to feed. She couldn't even go back to Hogwarts, Father would have disowned her and tried to recover her schooling fund immediately. She felt a gentle hand on her forehead, cool and comforting, and she hoped whoever it was didn't want anything in return.

She woke again later to find her hand being held again. Still?

Thankfully, the searing, stabbing pain had receded into a dull background ache no worse than her monthlies. She opened her eyes and saw beds, cabinets of potion bottles, clean gauze, shelves filled with sheets and blankets.

St. Mungo's.

She was definitely still alive, and disappointment welled up in her. It would have been better to join Mother. She looked down at her right hand, and saw it was covered by a blonde head of hair. Not greasy like Draco's. It was the loser. No- she corrected herself. He was the Winner. She hadn't suspected a single thing before he'd potioned her. She'd taken him for a rube, and paid the price for her lack of guard. Tactically, he was a genius. She could think of no better way to destroy her life than what he'd done, and he'd made her think it was her idea while it was happening. If she wasn't a now-disgraced no-name nobody, she might have thought he was a worthy conquest. At least that Lovegood bitch would be in the same boat. That was something.

He stirred then, raised his head and looked at her as his first action.

"How do you feel?" He asked.

"Shitty." She replied. "You should have let me die."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but you're carrying my child. That would never be an option. I... wasn't the one who saved you though."

"There's no way anyone could have known where to look for me, so how am I even here?" She was in a ravine on her family's property, for Morrigan's sake.

"I honestly don't know the answer to that, but I'm going to guess it was Duncan and Hermione, since they told me you were here."

Oh _perfect_. The fucking golden couple pulled her broken corpse out of a trash heap and saved her life. _Fantastic_. Well, not like it mattered anyway, she'd never see them again. She had to get to Gringott's and empty her personal vault, the one Father didn't know about. It was only a few hundred galleons, but it would keep her from starving for a little while until she figured something out. Even there she'd been stupid, and used that money on frivolous things, mostly to get Draco to notice her.

"Why are you here? To gloat? To laugh at how you out-Slytherined a Slytherin?"

Corbin glowered at her then. "What are you -" He started, then stopped and sighed. "You still think I potioned you."

She felt herself frown.

"I know all about what you tried to do to Luna, Pansy. Never mind that she's a friend of mine and I'm quite angry about it, but did you really think they wouldn't have any protections against it?"

Morrigan's murderous mother. Of course they'd have had protections. Fuck.

"You drank _your own_ potion, Pansy. Your cup and Wayne's were switched."

Her own potion. _Her Own Potion_. As though her utter failure wasn't enough, Life had decided to make poetry out of her, just as an extra sprinkle of Fuck You. Father had been right to eliminate the embarrassment. She sagged into herself as the full weight of despair squat down upon her.

She had cried before, of course. Many nights she'd cried herself to sleep. She couldn't let anyone else see her crying, so she'd learned to hide it just like the rest of the Slytherin girls. This was the first time it hurt physically to cry. The tears stung her eyes and her cheeks on the way down. Clenching her chest to sob hurt her entire torso - ribs, stomach, back. She still didn't care. She didn't even care that the loser was there watching, what did she have to protect? She had no reputation, no social standing, no prospects at all. The Mudblood Loser was higher in the hierarchy than she was. If it had been someone, _anyone_ else, she could have dealt with all that. She could have sworn revenge and lived for it. Could have planned and waited and struck from the shadows, but no. She had done it all _to herself_. Her whole future - decades of being rich, powerful, and feared - all of it was just gone. All her plans, her entire life stayed on that pile of trash and mouldered along with her mother.

She had what she was - nothing.

Then she felt arms around her. Gentle arms held her close and stroked her back and comforted her. For some reason, it made her cry even harder. She wrapped her arms around him even through the pain and held him close as the fear, the anger, the hurt and the desperate loneliness swept out of her in an unstoppable tide.

"Why are you here?" She sobbed into his neck, "I have nothing! I am nothing! You should have let me die!"

He pulled away from her enough to make her look at him, even though she could barely make him out through the tears.

"I don't want you to die. Especially when you have no idea who you really are."

"What?" She sniffed. He gently dabbed the tears from her cheeks and handed her a tissue.

"Tell me if I have got this wrong, but... Up until now you've been pursuing Malfoy -but not because you wanted to. It was something your father made you do. He crafted you from the time you were a child into a thing that only knows what he wants it to do. He punished you until you learned that you had to be a certain way, think certain things, and do what he expected of you. Right so far?"

She nodded. What else was there? Where was he going with this?

"He lied to you, Pansy. He abused you and denied you the love and affection you need. He filled your head with what _he_ thinks is important, and he is wrong. Social standing isn't important. Money isn't important. Blood purity isn't important. Magic decides for itself who can wield it, and everyone _knows_ that.

"I'm willing to bet that you couldn't name five things you like to do that don't involve hurting anyone. What do you like to do that's just for you? When was the last time you trusted someone? Have you ever told anyone what you think or feel inside just because you knew they cared? Has anyone ever really cared at all? Or is it always about what you can do for them?"

"I..." She started to protest, her mind worked feverishly to come up with things she liked to do, but everything she came up with she had to discard Everything she'd ever done was to please father or to get revenge or to impress Draco.

She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "How do you know any of that? You don't even know me."

Connor looked at the floor. "I... kind of watched you... for a while." He said softly.

"You watched me?" He couldn't get into the Slytherin dorms, so she wasn't worried about him seeing... what, exactly? Everything she'd already shown him in the broomcloset? Was it gratifying he'd watched her? Or creepy? She couldn't tell.

"You're beautiful." He shrugged. "Of course I watched you." His cheeks went pink first, then the tips of his ears darkened to red. For some reason, it tickled something in her chest. The corners of her mouth twitched to turn upward.

"I can't decide if you're telling the truth or if you're the best liar I've ever seen."

"Even if I was a liar, I wouldn't lie to you Pansy." She had no idea what the look in his eyes was, but he stared directly into her eyes and didn't waver an atom. An inexplicable warmth spread through her as she searched his eyes, an unfamiliar relaxing sort of feeling. His eyes were so open, so unguarded, so... _unafraid_.

She shook her head slightly. "I don't even understand how you can live like that." She said. "How do you gain an advantage? How do you climb the hierarchy?"

He flashed a sad grin. "What hierarchy? Why would I need an advantage over my friends?"

"You're saying there's no hierarchy? Why do you all defer to the golden couple then?"

He sighed, and was quiet for a time. "Why do you think they saved your life, Pansy? Do you think they did it to have something to hold over you? For leverage?"

She frowned. "What other possible reason is there? I'm just happy I wasn't raised a gormless fool who believes in Life Debts."

He smiled and shook his head. "They did it because they're good people, Pansy. Because helping others feels good and they like it."

"So they want what? Sex? Is that what this is about?" She frowned. That was kind of gross, but kind of exciting at the same time.

Cody scrunched up his face and shook his head. "Ew! No! They don't want anything from you, it just feels good to help someone else. Have you never helped anyone else without wanting something in return?"

It was her turn to scrunch up her face, but halfway through it started to hurt, so she just shook her head. "No, of course not. Why would I go out of my way for no reason?"

"Try it sometime. I think you'll find that no gain is not the same as no reason."

"That doesn't even make sense." She frowned.

He cocked his head to the side in thought for a moment before he spoke again.

"Take me for example then, answer your own question. Why am I here? Knowing what I just told you, why am I here with you when I should be at school?"

She frowned harder. It was like asking why mosquitoes liked some people and not others. There wasn't any _sense_ behind it. The answer he was looking for was probably more drivel about feelings... though she had to admit his presence did quell the frenzied panic in her chest. She was much more relaxed than she ought to be, especially with a baby growing inside her. At this point she ought to find a cave to line with cardboard and collect food for the winter or something.

"I don't know. I don't understand what you're getting out of this." She admitted quietly as she looked down at the sheets that covered her still-bruised body.

He reached out and placed a gentle hand against her cheek and guided her eyes back to his. He stood and leaned forward, and gently pressed her lips with his own as he looked into her eyes. "I _care_ about you, Pansy. I did before the Ball. I'm here because I want to always _be_ here. I'm sorry it had to happen like this, but I'm not sorry it happened. Yule Ball was the best night of my life, and still is."

Tears stung her eyes again as something inside her cracked. He cared? She _was_ having his baby, so maybe that wasn't so farfetched, but always be here? Did he mean at the hospital? Was he studying to be a Healer? Or did he mean by her side? That question was connected to a raw nerve, and that touch to it forced water from her eyes.

"What does that mean?" She whispered.

"It means I would be here with you even without the baby. It means I don't care if you have money or status or a last name. I'm interested in _you_ , in Pansy. Just you. I want to help you see that you're free, I want to help you find things you like to do, I want you to have fun - for no bigger reason than I want to see you smile."

She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. She liked the way he kissed. He kissed her back, like he enjoyed it. His lips felt alive against hers. It was a far cry from Draco's dead fish lips. Cory's lips made her feel warm inside. Wanted. He was no MacFusty with his aura of power, but he did have a kind of solidity to him that made him seem more than he looked.

"You're insane." She whispered when she let his lips go. "I'm not... I mean... What does that mean? For the future?"

He kissed her again once, and smiled at her. "It means you'll rest here until you're healed. Then you're going to live with my father in Australia. I'm going to finish the term here and then come join you. I'll get a job and start making some money, and then we'll get married. We can finish school part-time when we're there."

She bit her lip to keep from crying again, but it didn't work. He _knew_ she had no House, no name, no resources. He _knew_ he would be throwing away better prospects with no hope of recouping the losses. It was an offer she would never see again if she lived to be a thousand.

" _Why_?" She cried. "I don't understand you. What are you getting? Why would you ever take me in when I'll be nothing but a drain?"

He forced her to lay back in the bed, and stroked her hair soothingly when she did. "You are a _person_ , Pansy. You are a beautiful witch. That's what I'm trying to tell you. You are not a chit to be cashed in. You are not a means to an end. You are not a gamepiece in some power struggle to be used or sacrificed. You are a living, breathing woman with your own wants and talents and skills, even if you don't know what they are yet."

His hand running over her hair was a stupid, simple thing. Why did it feel so good?

“I don't understand you at all." She told him, still shocked that he would offer to marry her, to give her a last name and the protection of his House, even if it was a nothing mudblood house. "How do you know how to kiss so well? How do you know to stroke my hair like that? Do you know how good that feels?"

He smiled down at her. "My mum used to do this when I was a kid, before she died. So yeah, I know. You're..." He blushed a very cute fiery red, "You're the first girl I ever kissed like that, so I guess I just really like you? I don't know. I'm glad you like it though."

She did. Why had she hated him again? She remembered hating him at the Ball... right. For being the only one who'd asked. For being a mudblood. She was a lot of things, but a fool was not among them. He was the best she was going to get, so she would hold onto him as tightly as possible. The fact he had a talented mouth was unexpected gold, and she wondered just _how_ talented it was. It was sad she would have to wait months to find out, but it was also something to look forward to.

"I do. I... had fun at the Ball too." She said softly. His blush, on the fade, glowed pink again. "I'd like to do that more, without the potions this time."

His eyebrows reached for the ceiling. "You would?!"

She nodded. It was strangely relaxing, knowing that her future was decided. She didn't have to plot to remove the witch who had already bagged the best boy, she didn't have to lie awake at night trying to plan how best to ensnare him, she didn't even have to care who it was, though the whole school knew it was MacFusty, even Draco. She had started to wonder if maybe Draco didn't fancy other boys the way he'd gone on about MacFusty for months.

She had a path. She had a future, one that was completely unexpected, but also a little exciting. She would be grateful - she _was_ grateful, but she would try to remember to _show_ it. She would learn Conrad's background from his father as she toed the line, and then when he showed up, she would do her best to be useful. Just because they had no concept of reciprocity didn't mean she would instantly forget.

She didn't have the ring on her finger yet though. Things could still change. She would have to write to him.

"I.. umm... I would _really_ like that." He whispered, back to fiery red.

  
  


* * *

  
  


They squeezed each other's hands excitedly at the same time, and dropped their disillusionment.

They each looked at the other, and both were pointing at the same black cleft in the wall of rock. They landed on a thick pillar of rock a few hundred meters from the shore that stood alone against the crashing waves like a vigilant sentinel.

"Looks like your guess was right on the money, honey." Harry half-shouted over the roar of the ocean around them.

"It was a simple extrapolation based on known geological composition and forma-" Hermione began, and then stopped when she saw how Harry looked at her through sarcastic brows. "And you knew that because you were there." She quirked both corners of her mouth into an annoyed pout. "You just wanted to call me honey."

Harry leaned over and kissed the side of her head. "True! But I love it when you talk sexy like that." He grinned.

She grinned back at him and slapped his behind as she pushed magic into her eyes. She recoiled immediately on looking at the cave.

"Auch, that's disgusting!" She grimaced.

Harry changed his eyes as well. Magic covered the mouth of the cave, but it was the farthest thing from the clean, clear wards he'd seen. It was a black haze that covered the mouth of the cave, it _writhed_ hungrily and fanged maws surfaced occasionally, gaping wide to bite.

"I don't want to know what he did to make that. I don't even want to know what it does." Harry felt his upper lip raise in disgust.

Hermione used her wand and cast several diagnostic spells at the hideous ward. "It's just a regular Dissuasion Ward, but he's woven a Dementor into it. And some snakes."

"It's technically alive." Harry said queasily. "Self-sustaining, but just _sick_. He could have carved runes into the rock and made it permanent, that's just deliberately gross."

Hermione looked tinged with green. "I feel like we need to erase it."

Harry couldn't agree more. He could almost feel horrified anguish emanating from the thing. It was _wrong_. It was an affront to magic itself. "Absolutely."

Hermione grabbed his hand and interlaced their fingers as she Resonated. Harry followed suit, and they Harmonized almost immediately.

"Just a short burst, I want to save most of our fire in case there's other things inside." Harry cautioned.

Hermione nodded back at him, and by mutual handsqueeze, they blasted the horrid ward at a single point with a short burst of blazing white and aquamarine. The grotesque Dissuasion Ward buckled and punctured like tissue paper, and was gone in a blink.

Hermione frowned, and Harry could feel her dissatisfaction. "That was almost too easy." She said. "You're likely right, I think there's more inside."

"Let's go see." He smiled, and she could feel him alter his Resonance to carry him through the air, so she did the same. They stopped at the entrance to the cave and hovered near the apex of the opening to give their eyes time to adjust to the gloom within before they floated carefully in through the cave mouth.

The air within the cave resisted the fresh salty scent of the ocean, and was instead a foetid, dank miasma that coated the throat and stung the eyes.

"It stinks." Hermione gagged.

"Smells like old kills left half-eaten." Harry nodded. "Madness."

"I can't tell if it's me or my Svurtr half that wants to destroy it more. My hands twitch with need to tear the place down and correct the infection."

Harry chuckled and nuzzled the side of her head. "There is no you half or Svurtr half. You're one and the same. If it's any consolation, I feel the same. What's been done to this place is _wrong_."

"I'm glad we're going to be ridding the world of Riddle and this taint. I suddenly have fewer compunctions about killing his followers."

"Yeah, this is what they have planned for the world. Themselves as ruthless kings with us as their playthings. Can't say I'm for it, really." Harry agreed with her. "If their children hadn't tormented you I might be more inclined to spare them, but they've proven they don't deserve it."

"We'll still give them a chance though." She said with a sly grin. She knew that's what he thought.

He smiled back at her as he recognized what she was doing. "Of course. If we don't give them a chance, we're no better than Riddle. I don't want to remake the world, I just want it infection-free. How about you?"

"House in the forest, hunting, fishing, magic, and snuggles." She smiled at him.

Harry laughed, but the sound came across as alien in that place, echoless and hollow. Hermione suppressed a shiver at the unnaturalness of it, and furrowed her brow. It reminded them both why they were there, and they turned back to the business at hand.

They floated carefully down to the obvious focus of the cave, a shallow stone bowl on a pedestal atop a basalt island in the center of a lake of seawater. There were no ripples across the water, everything was silent and dead still. The far side of the lake had about a Quidditch pitch's worth of above-water rock shelf before it dead-ended in a rock wall. Most of the rock of the cave was slick with black slime that made footing treacherous.

Hermione took her wand out again and revealed the arithmancy of the bowl on the pedestal.

"Shit." She whispered.

"What is it?"

"It's really complicated. This is going to take a while. He might be an evil git, but he's good at spellcraft."

"Can't we just blow it up and take the thing?" He asked hopefully.

"What thing?" She frowned at him.

"The thing that's being protected. What is it?" He tried to look over her shoulder, but she blocked his view of the bowl, and there were floating strings of arithmancy in front of it in any case.

"A necklace, looks like. And no, that would trigger everything at once. There are several layers of defenses."

"Drat. Alright then, can I help? Two heads and all that."

"Hmm... don't think so. Follow along though, make sure I don't make any mistakes?" She bit her lip as she sorted the strings. She began to group strings by their place within the spell, each trigger and effect.

"You bet. You won't though." He grinned.

"I could. Better safe than sorry."

"Just relax and be your brilliant self. I trust you." He focused on the task at hand, and Hermione began to say out loud what she was thinking as she grouped each of the arithmancy strings together, then picked each one apart.

"Alright, I think I get it." She said excitedly after she had completed her analysis. "These generate the liquid - some kind of emotion-affecting potion. These are bound to the shell that has to be used to drink the potion, and these ones keep the necklace or whatever it is hidden and out of reach until the potion is drunk with the shell. This handful of nasty is the protections, they share lines with each of the other things, so unless everything is done the way Riddle wants it done, the protections are triggered and this enormous whatever it is happens."

"That open-ended string there? Doesn't that one lead into the lake around us?" Harry asked as he pointed to one specific line.

"Yes, and it splits over and over again. Looks like hundreds of times."

"Hm. So the protection has something to do with hundreds of points in the lake. Or hundreds of different effects." Harry said unhappily.

"Right. But here, see?" She swirled the lines of arithmancy around to point at one of them. "This here looks like a kind of off switch. Like a master override."

"Yeah, it does, but..."

"But what?"

"Do you think he would make it that easy?"

"It wasn't easy. How many others do you think could pull this all apart and make sense of it?"

"Fair point, honestly. I think we should be flying and ready to leave in any case. Better safe than sorry, like you said. My instincts are telling me it isn't going to be that easy."

"Also a fair point, and your instincts haven't been wrong yet." She began to Resonate again, and Harry did a second after. "Ready?" She asked.

Harry nodded back and held her left hand, ready to fly to safety.

Hermione reached out with her wand and activated the master override string. The whole arithmantic display, starting with the override, began to turn red in a sweeping cascade.

"No, NO! Dammit!" Hermione cursed.

The potion in the shallow stone bowl dribbled out and down the pillar in a stream, then ran over the tops of the slick basalt pillars they stood upon toward the water. Hermione grabbed the suddenly revealed necklace from the stone bowl as Harry lifted into the air and pulled her along with him. She shoved the necklace into her pocket as she glimpsed the horror below them.

The potion dribbled into the foetid, stinking lake water, and the depths began to surge. Dozens of pairs of grey, greasy hands scrabbled on the black rocks, their jagged, broken nails made scraping sounds as waterlogged corpses almost exploded into view.

"Inferi!" Hermione called out to Harry, who was busy watching where they were going.

"For real?!" He called back. He pulled up just in time to not smack face-first into the solid rock wall that suddenly covered the entrance to the cave.

"We're trapped!" Hermione shouted, a note of panic rose in her voice.

Harry pounded his fist against the rock face in front of him, to no effect. It was solid and real. They were trapped.

He turned to look at Hermione then, and squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Yes, we're trapped, for now. So... What do we do?" He asked her calmly, as though giving a lecture.

She opened her mouth to scream at him, but stopped. She looked at him, into his eyes, then down at the lake below them, then toward the island where inferi snarled and wheezed and gnashed their broken, jagged teeth.

She took a deep breath and let it out, then turned back to him with a tight smile. "We kill them all." She said calmly.

He smiled back. "We kill them all. We read about them not a month ago. What are inferi weak against?"

"Fire!" She shouted with a grin.

"Fire."

Hundreds of the hideous, scrambling corpses ran frantically up and down the far side of the lake in the open as they tried to somehow reach the flying humans.

"Don't need to worry about the ones on the island, we can clear the shore first and wait for those ones to come to us." Hermione said as she evaluated the situation tactically.

"That's what I was thinking." Harry agreed, and synchronized his Resonance with hers again.

She could feel the buildup within him as he readied himself to Breathe, so she matched him and they spread bright white fire in blazing lines up and down the shore. Each column of flame bathed the horde of undead and left steaming, exploded chunks of rotted flesh in its wake.

After their third line of flame, Harry could feel Hermione's Resonance grow weak. If she kept flying, it would drain her too far. She would fall unconscious and drop into the still large and seething mass of inferi below. If they landed now, she would remain conscious and able to fight, but they would lose their advantage and be forced to fight the remaining inferi hand-to-hand.

It wasn't much of a question, really.

"To the island!" He shouted. Hermione looked at him quizzically, but nodded and flew there to set down in their original position. "We'll have to take the rest physically, you're getting too close to drained." He explained as he landed beside her.

She frowned, but then sighed and nodded. She hated to admit weakness, but facts were facts. She grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him savagely. "Don't die."

"Same to you." His eyes were worried about her, but she grinned back at him and took a fighting stance with chin tucked, shoulders high, and fists at the ready.

The first inferi to reach them pulled itself from the lake moments later, and as Harry prepared to push it back into the lake with his foot, Hermione's fist lashed out like a piston and caved its face in with a meaty crack. The inferi dropped like a puppet with cut strings to the slick stones and didn't move. The first few arrived singly and in pairs, and Harry did his best to mimic what Hermione was doing, but one of the inferi crawled out of the lake and grabbed his ankles while he was fighting another one, and he landed hard on his behind as the thing crawled up his legs toward his neck.

"Hold it's shoulders!" Hermione shouted at him.

Its jagged fingernails scratched the skin of his arms as he struggled to do as she asked. He saw the feral hunger in its dead, clouded eyes and smelled the sickening rot as it gnashed at his face, but his hands found purchase on its shoulders as he lifted his knees.

"Hold it there!" Hermione shouted. She spun, and one of her legs flashed out. She connected with it just below the ear, and its head sailed away to land with a plop in the lake. Hermione completed her spin and landed in the same position she'd been in to begin with.

Harry threw the now-motionless body away as the torn neck stump dribbled black, viscous liquid all over him. He saw that his arms bled where the thing had scratched him, and a cold lump of worry settled into his stomach.

As he scrambled to his feet Harry saw a pile of unmoving bodies had accumulated in front of Hermione, but he could see the main force that remained approached them quickly. Their tiny island would be overrun in moments.

"Twist your hips as you punch." Hermione said, and demonstrated. "When you hit, only hit with these first two knuckles. That will focus the impact and make it more effective."

"If we survive this I'm going to want you to teach me how to fight."

"I never thought kickboxing lessons would be useful as a witch." She flashed a grin at him, but that was when eight pairs of hands scrabbled on the rocks and they were surrounded, with more right on their heels.

Harry did as Hermione had instructed, and was rewarded with rotted brains all over his front as he put his fist _through_ the inferi skull. His excited surprise turned to horrified disgust, but he had no time to retch as sharp, broken teeth pierced the muscle of his shoulder. He could feel another pair of hands scrape down his other shoulderblade and tear his T-shirt. He spun away from the biting teeth and smashed that head, but another one bit into the muscle between his neck and shoulder.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted. She spun where she was and two heads cracked simultaneously as she lashed out with fist and elbow at the same time. She took a step and her leg flashed out as she kicked the one that held him in the chest and sent it into the lake.

He returned the favor and brought his fist downward like a hammer onto the skull of the one that she had ignored to save him. More gushing gore sprayed over both of them. Hermione nodded at him and turned back to the work at hand. Back to back they stood as they grimly faced the remainder of their foes and fought for their lives.

There was no slowing, no momentary reprieves, they fought and fought and then all at once it was over.

When Harry felled the last one, Hermione looked around for more, and then promptly vomited over the pile of bodies next to her.

Harry held her hair out of the way as she retched, and Resonated to conjure a glass full of mouthwash for when she finished. She took it from him with grateful eyes and immediately gargled half the glass. She spat that out and gargled the rest before she Vanished the glass.

"I got some in my mouth." She said at last, and shuddered.

"We're both covered in it. I probably did too." He conjured another glass for himself and repeated Hermione's actions.

Light blossomed inside the cave as the rock face that covered the cave mouth disappeared again. Hermione visibly relaxed when she saw the way out.

"Well _that_ was pleasant." Her voice dripped sarcasm. "I need to shower for a week now."

"If you're there too, I'd shower for a week anyway." Harry smiled at her. "We have to meet Nev and Daphne in Hogsmeade at eleven though, so we only have a couple of hours."

"Ugh. I want to sleep for a week too. That took a lot out of me." She grimaced.

"Me too." Harry agreed.

"Why am I the only one who looks tired then?" Hermione frowned.

"I've been this way for years, and you've only been this way for months. I'm just more used to the effort. It'll get better." He blew a kiss at her. "I'll get us home, you just rest." He said. He bent at the knees with his arms out behind him, and she climbed onto his back. "We'll get to Hogsmeade and get some food in you, that helps."

"Shower first. Just take us - Harry!" She cried out in dismay, "You're bleeding! You've got bite marks here!"

"Some scratches on my arms too. They're healing. Are the bites bad? They sting like crazy.” They were nothing compared to being impaled by a dragon talon, but he wasn't happy at the moment.

"I can't tell in this light. Take us right to the bathroom, I'll check you after I vanish these clothes."

They appeared at Potter Glen, in the master bedroom's bathroom in the next instant. Hermione dropped the necklace on the counter, and Harry Vanished the clothes from both of them before she could expend the effort.

She pulled him to his knees from behind while she examined his wounds.

"They appear to be healing, but not correctly. It looks like they might be infected." Hermione bit her lip and reached for her wand.

"Not surprising, considering where the bites came from." He said.

"This is going to hurt." She told him, then pain blossomed in his shoulder and neck. Harry couldn't see what she did, but it felt like she had poured acid in the wound and then scrubbed it with a wire brush.

"Ow." He said.

"Sorry. That should take care of the infection though..." She hugged him from behind and he felt her breasts on his back. Even the pain in his neck and shoulder couldn't stop his smile at that.

"What was it? What did you do?" He asked.

"Concentrated iodine and a toothbrush. Might have been a bit of overkill, but it seems to be working." She replied.

After a moment, he heard her sigh. The pain receded slowly, but it definitely felt better on the whole. "Good, it looks like you're healing normally again. Thank goodness."

"No, thank _you_." He corrected. He turned into her as he stood, and saw that her eyes held unshed tears. "Hey, I'm alright. We're alright." He wrapped his arms around her, and she squeezed him back.

"I know. Just scared me, that's all." She reached up to kiss him, and as he reached down to kiss her, they both stopped and saw they were still coated in muck. He turned on the shower and when the water steamed, he gestured for her to precede him.

Neither of them paid attention to the other at first. They were filthy with rotted gore and the feeling of dark, slimy magic, so both of them concentrated on scrubbing themselves clean. Harry had less hair than Hermione, and was consequently finished sooner, so he helped her rinse hers while she finished with the washcloth.

"That feels nice." She smiled sleepily at him while he massaged the shampoo out of her hair.

He kissed her forehead. "I think so too. I love your hair." He smiled back at her. "Come get dressed, and we'll get some yummy steak and relax with our friends, then I'll bring you home and tuck you in for a nice snuggle before bed. Alright?"

"Mmmmm." She hummed, and rested her head on his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. "I love it when you take care of me."

"Well that's handy, as I don't intend to stop." He chuckled. "Besides, you took care of me first, remember?"

"Mmm. Did, too. Mine. Mine mine all mine." She cooed and squeezed him tighter.

"Forever and always, Hermione." He wrapped his arms around her and just held her tight for a long moment.

"Forever and always." She echoed, and kissed him once over both his hearts before she let him go. "Now I want some steak."

He laughed and she smiled up at him, and they turned the water off to dry each other.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Sirius practically skipped up the walk from the Apparition point. Not only was he back at his favourite place in the world, but the kids had news about Voldemort and his possible horcruxes! He'd spent the last two weeks scouring the Black family library for information on the things, and had gleaned a few facts from the information available, but any actual rituals or concrete information on the composition and protections on horcruxes remained elusive.

One of the new and improved Potter elves showed up before he'd taken ten steps. This one was a male, dressed in the now-familiar navy and white uniform. He'd only ever seen Lammy's outfit before though, and he noticed the pants this one wore were military-style, with large pouchpockets on the legs. He also had a small gold medal pinned to the left breast pocket of his crisp white shirt.

"Good morning, Mister Sirius. The Mister and Missus are waiting for you in the library."

"Thank you, er... have we met?"

"I'm Wolly, sir. You knew my sire, Golly."

Sirius stopped in his tracks and took a deep breath. Golly had been James's personal elf from the time he was a child, and he'd been joyful and everpresent when Sirius had lived at the manor. He'd had a decent sense of humor too, for an elf.

"I did indeed, Wolly. I daresay he'd be quite proud of you, as well. Of all of you. He was a good elf, a good friend. He died protecting everything that was important to me."

Wolly smiled at that, and got a little misty-eyed. "Thank you, Mister Sirius Sir. He'd be ever so pleased you're here again as well. If there's anything I can do for you, just call me, sir. I would be honored to answer." Wolly bowed, then vanished.

"It's good to be home." Sirius whispered.

He found Harry and Hermione poring over books at one of the tables when he arrived.

"I would be _very_ surprised if you found anything on horcruxes in this library." He said.

Harry looked up and smiled at him. "Sirius! Thanks for coming. This is enchanting, honestly. We found early on there isn't much in the way of dark secrets here."

"Some lovely things on just about every other subject, but dark secrets not so much." Hermione added.

Harry put a bookmark in the one he was reading and closed the cover. "Let's go to the lounge. Have you eaten? I could do with a snack, and Hermione would kill me if I ate anything in here."

"Count on it." Hermione said threateningly.

Sirius chuckled and followed the kids to the lounge.

Once they were situated and Harry had made himself a sandwich out of a roast chicken breast and a scone, Hermione handed Sirius a necklace she pulled from her pocket.

"What's this?" He asked as he took it. Once it touched his hand however, he knew the question had been redundant. His magic recognized it as belonging to the Black family.

"We were going to ask you the same question." She said. "It clearly isn't one of Riddle's horcruxes, but was left in place of one. There's a note inside. You wanted to know all about what we were up to regarding our search, so there's the latest dead end."

He nodded back at her. "Thank you, I appreciate being kept in the know. I can tell you right now this belongs to my family. Where was it?"

"In a sea cave, on a tiny island surrounded by a lake filled with inferi."

Sirius felt his forehead crawl toward his crown, while the rest of his skin just crawled. "Inferi? You're certain?"

Hermione nodded. "Absolutely. I've never encountered them before, but what else could rotted, gnashing corpses be?"

Sirius felt himself nod numbly. "No, that would be inferi alright." He shuddered as he recalled his own run-in with three of the monstrosities during the first war.

"He wove a Dementor and some snakes into a Ward over the mouth of the cave too, the disgusting git." Harry added after a mouthful of tea.

"What happened?" He asked them. "You're clearly alright, thank Merlin, but how?"

Hermione grimaced. "It's my fault, really. Harry warned me, but I didn't listen. I was trying to de-activate the protections around the horcrux, and triggered a trap. The mouth of the cave closed over with rock and hundreds of inferi came out of the lake."

"Hundreds?!"

Harry nodded. "It was an army. We managed to burn most of them, but we ran out of steam toward the end and had to physically tear them apart to make them stop moving."

"Took ages to get that vile mess out of my hair." Hermione complained. "Stank like anything as well."

"I had to scrub the shower down with bleach afterward just to get the smell out." Harry wrinkled his nose.

"Why didn't you just get the elves to do it?" He asked. That was what they were for, after all.

Harry frowned. "That's not cricket. If it's something _I_ don't want to do, I'm not going to foist it off on someone else, no matter how much they want to help. That's a shitty way to be a friend."

"And a good way to treat friends like servants! Honestly! " Hermione frowned at him as well, even more dangerously than Harry.

"Okay, Okay. Point taken. Old habits, and I've been in prison for twelve years. No offense meant. I'll work on it." James had called his elves friends but still treated them like elves. Apparently his son genuinely saw them as friends. They walked and talked and used magic, however odd they were they were mostly humanish. He made a mental note to be on his best behaviour regarding elves - especially considering any of their new and improved versions might very well thrash him in a duel.

An _army_ of inferi. With their _bare hands_.

He took a deep breath and let it out. He'd asked to be part of their lives, so if their lives were going to revolve around a different way of thinking, then he'd better get on board or be left at the station. James had been a force of nature unto himself in his day, and Harry - Merlin, both of them! - clearly carried on that tradition.

"You alright?" Harry asked him his head cocked to one side.

He barked a laugh. "Yes. Woolgathering. Making mental notes to adjust my way of thinking, and remembering your mother. Lily would have loved you fiercely." He said to Hermione. "She already loved you fiercely." He said to Harry.

Harry's hand sought Hermione's almost of its own accord. "That stands to reason." He smiled at her. "I do, and both my other mothers do too." He pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. Smooth, kid.

Sirius suppressed a grin and turned his attention to the locket in his hands. It was round, and the design on the front sparked his memory, but he couldn't place where he'd seen it before. He clicked the lock and opened it. He hoped for some clue, but there were no pictures inside, there was only the note Hermione had mentioned. He pulled the note out and unfolded it, and caught the faintest whiff of the smell Harry and Hermione had spoken of. It made his eyes water and his stomach rebel.

He wiped his eyes with the back of a hand and read the flowing, handwritten words.

**To the Dark Lord**

**I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match you will be mortal once more.**

**R.A.B.** 1

Reggie. He'd turned on the dark wanker in the end! An ache settled in his chest then, for what might have been. Reggie hadn't been a true Black either. That thought both lifted his heart and filled it with fear that he had abandoned his baby brother to the tender mercies of his mother.

"Sirius?" Hermione asked gently.

He looked up at her and realized his eyes were watery. "Sorry." He sniffed. "I'm fine." He held up the letter. "R.A.B. Regulus Arcturus Black. Reggie, my little brother."

"Oh no, I'm so sorry." She said.

"I'm sorry, Sirius." Harry said softly.

He nodded. Knowing that made him proud of Reggie, a little. He'd still joined the Death Eaters and done terrible things, but it was good to know Walburga hadn't corrupted him fully.

"Just... a little proud he turned against Moldyshorts. He was still a Black, and I don't regret leaving them when I did, but..." He shrugged. There wasn't anything to be done about it now.

"Kreacher!" He called.

Kreacher appeared with a loud CRACK!. "Ugly Blood-traitor mas..." He started, then his eyes went wide, his jaw hung open, and his pupils became tiny pinpoints. "Nasty traitor master summons Kreacher to the House of Power..." He whispered. He turned away from Sirius as he scanned the place, until his eyes touched Harry and Hermione.

"Lammy's Master and Mistress!" He whispered reverently. He fell to his knees face down, his arms stretched out before him, palms on the floor. "What can humble Kreacher does for beings of power?"

"Well you can get up and stop doing that, for starters." Hermione frowned. "Sirius, did you need him for something?"

Kreacher got to his feet uncertainly, and looked between them and Sirius, but bobbed his head whenever he looked at Harry and Hermione.

"Kreacher, I called you to ask you about this." Sirius held out his hand with the locket in it. Kreacher took one look at it and completely deflated.

"Nasty blood traitor master discovers Kreacher's shame."

"Shame? What do you mean shame?" Sirius frowned.

"Beloved Regulus master orders Kreacher to destroy the nastybad magic thing, and Kreacher tries! Tries and tries for years! Kreacher tries everything Kreacher can thinks, but Kreacher can't hurts it!"

Hermione sat forward, eyes intense. " _That_ sounds like the kind of thing we're looking for. Would you like some help, Kreacher?"

Kreacher's eyes went wide again as he looked to Hermione.

"Powerful Mistress would helps useless Kreacher?"

"Why did you never ask me for help, Kreacher?" Sirius asked. "Reggie was my brother."

"Beloved master hated nasty traitor master for abandoning family. Kreacher is loyal! Kreacher obeys Beloved Master even when Beloved Master makes Kreacher leaves him to die!"

Sirius exhaled a sad sigh of his own. No wonder the old elf was so crusty - he'd been living with being made to abandon Reggie to die, torn between loyal service to the family and being made to outlive the last official Black.

"You were there with him, Kreacher? Until he made you leave?"

Kreacher bobbed his head sadly.

"What happened?" Sirius asked softly.

Kreacher's mouth twitched and he sniffed. "Nasty filthy half-blood snake man uses Kreacher to test cave magics, and Beloved Master is angry. Kreacher belongs to Beloved Master! Brilliant Regulus Master brings Kreacher back to cave after and drinks filthy half-blood's potion. Master Regulus claims filthy snake-man's secret and orders Kreacher to go home, to destroy slimy corrupted metal as soon as Kreacher can. Filthy dead muggleses comes from the lake, but Beloved Master makes Kreacher go away, so Kreacher goes away and leaves Beloved Master to die. Black family dies because Kreacher is loyal, and then Kreacher can't kill the nasty filthy snake-man's locket! Kreacher fails everything! Kreacher is shame!"

The old elf flung a forearm over his eyes as he started to cry.

"Kreacher," Sirius said softly as he put a hand on the poor old elf's shoulder. "Let me help you. We'll fulfill Reggie's last wish together."

"Nast - nasty traitor master would helps shameful Kreacher?" He rubbed his face with his forearm.

Sirius nodded and smiled. "I would be thrilled to. The Black Family isn't quite dead yet either, but it is time for them to change. You wouldn't want to miss a whole new generation of Blacks, would you?"

Kreacher shook his head hard enough to make his ears flap over his face.

"Well then. Let's help you finish your master's last wish, then we can start looking for a new Lady Black. What do you say?"

Kreacher nodded and sniffed. "Kreacher would likes that."

Sirius looked at Harry and Hermione, who were holding hands and smiling at him. "Where, do you think? I know your grandparents had a work room in the basement, but I will have to use Fiendfyre on the thing, and then we don't know what kind of protections it has on it."

"Hmm." Harry grunted. "Quidditch pitch? Even if it explodes, it would only damage the grass, and that'll grow back."

Sirius frowned and pointed a finger at Harry. "That's blasphemy, and your father would be very disappointed. However, you aren't wrong."

Harry chuckled and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Kreacher, would you please retrieve the snake-man's locket and meet us on the quidditch pitch outside?" He asked the old elf.

Kreacher nodded, then bowed to Harry and Hermione, and vanished.

"Why Fiendfyre?" Hermione asked as they all trooped out to the quidditch field.

"I couldn't find anything specific in the Black library. Apparently even my ancestors knew better than to go mucking about with Horcruxes, though I did find a few oblique references to dealing with them. One of them said "Even the vilest darknesse, no matter the vessel, must succombe to the heighte of the Wizard's Arte". It was written by Antares Rigel Black, who was well known for his devotion to Fiendfyre and using it on Goblins."

"Oh." Hermione replied, "Sounds like you come from a long line of charmers. Your deduction seems sound though."

Sirius chuckled. "It's not an accident I'm the only one left. They were all so charming they ran straight to Oldywarts, soon as he turned up."

"Well, keep being you then. I'm sure you'll find some witch who's crazy about old, skinny wizards." She smiled at him sweetly.

He had to laugh at that. Just like her bloody husband! Harry laughed quietly to himself the whole time, too. He missed Lily and James keenly then, even though it seemed like they were right next to him and teasing him just as they'd always done. Harry and Hermione might share traits with them, but they were also very different from James and Lily, and he was thankful for that. It was a bittersweet thing to be with them, but he knew James and Lily would be proud. He discovered then that he was proud as well, and that startled him a little. He'd had literally nothing to do with either of them growing up, so where did that come from?

Kreacher waited for them at the center of the quidditch pitch. As they approached, they could see a large rectangular locket on the grass at his feet.

"Well, that confirms what we thought about the founders." Hermione said as she bent to examine it.

"That gives us something to go on, at least." Harry replied.

"I seem to be missing a conversation or two. Something to go on?"

Harry looked at Hermione and cast a privacy shell around the four of them before Hermione continued.

"Apparently Tom was fixated on the Hogwarts' founders, so we thought he might use items connected to them as his vessels. Hufflepuff's cup, Ravenclaw's diadem," She pointed to the locket on the ground, "Slytherin's locket."

"Wait wait wait - Tom? Who's Tom? And how do you know that's Slytherin's locket?"

Hermione looked at Harry, and Harry quirked one corner of his mouth.

"Before I tell you any of this, I want your solemn promise to _not_ go after Dumbledore in any way. Feel free to get angry and vent, but stay away from Dumbledore. We need him to live a while longer, and we need _you_ to stay out of prison." Harry looked at him pointedly.

"Dumbledore? I don't understand."

"Promise us, or you'll stay that way." Harry's eyes held a steely glint just like his mother's had. He knew from experience when Lily looked at you like that, there was no getting around her.

"Alright, I promise to not go after Dumbledore in any way."

Harry nodded then, and his eyes softened. Hermione's hand slipped into his.

"We had a... meeting... with Dumbledore a little while ago. He tried to tell us that because we don't sleep in the dorms that he had to report Hermione to the Ministry and she was expelled and was going to have her magic bound and her wand snapped. He was full of shit, of course. He was just trying to push our buttons and get us off balance so he could then make some concession and extract some gratitude from us. It was pathetic, really. In any case, it didn't work, and I... well, the first time I ever met Dumbledore in his office, he tried to Legilimens me. I returned the favor. As a result, we now know everything he knows."

"It's against the law to Legillimens a minor, are you sure that's what he did?" Sirius frowned.

Harry frowned back. "Like I wouldn't know Legilimensy if it was used on me?"

"Not what I said, just relax. It just seems a little hard to believe, that's all. Dumbledore is the most experienced, most powerful of us all."

"He's a _human_ , Sirius. He got good at using tricks to protect his mind rather than developing his _will_. He's just as weak as the rest of you, no offense."

"See, when you put it that way..." Sirius mentally kicked himself for forgetting Harry's unconventional upbringing. He needed to get some kind of understanding what the two of them were actually capable of.

"Would you like a demonstration?" Harry grinned.

"Ah, I'll pass, thanks. There are some things rattling around up here I'd rather not have in the open. "

Harry chuckled. "Alright then. As I was saying, we know everything Dumbledore knows. He has known since the thirties that Voldemort's real name was Tom Riddle. Dumbledore went to a muggle orphanage to collect him to Hogwarts when he was eleven. He watched Tom turn into Voldemort while he was at Hogwarts. He's known everything about Voldemort this entire time. That's how we know about his fixation on the founders, how we knew to look in the sea cave, how we know about where we're going next."

"He's known all this about Vol - about Riddle since the _thirties_?! Since long before the last war!" They could have put the bastard in the ground permanently the last time around. James and Lily could have lived. Edgar Bones. Marlene McKinnon. Molly's brothers. So many people could have lived, if only Dumbledore had simply spoken up.

"You were right, I want to go kill him right now." He could feel his jaw clenching as heat built inside him. So many good people gone - why? For what?!

"Believe me, I understand. I almost did it at the time. Hermione almost did it later."

"We have plans for him, Sirius. Just leave him be and we'll make sure he gets what's coming to him." Hermione soothed. "For now, let's get back to the task at hand. We can talk about what a foul and seeping arse Dumbledore is later."

"Language." Harry cautioned, though his eyes sparkled when he looked at her. She tightened her lips and smirked at him.

Well, at least he could take his anger out on _Tom_. It was strange to think of Voldemort as a person, but of course he had been one at some point. He'd been a baby after all, a goobling ball of cuteness and dribble, and he had grown to become Voldemort. He would have to ask them how exactly that had happened. Those two facts together scared the shit out of him when he thought about having children of his own. That _already_ scared him, just in general.

"Right." He took a deep breath and forced it out, and placed a hand on Kreacher's shoulder. The old elf had been uncharacteristically quiet and respectful while they talked. "Sorry, Kreacher. I know you've waited a long time for this." He took his main wand out of its holster and took a moment to focus his mind.

Harry and Hermione backed up ten steps, and Kreacher popped over to them.

"Here goes nothing." He nodded at them. It was always a contest inside him when he used Fiendfyre - not that it was often, he hated using it for that very reason. The wild, surging magic inside him wanted to burn everything, to be free to run and consume the entire world. It was only his focus, his restraint that stopped it. He had always won so far, but that had been a dozen years ago. He'd known who he was then, been sure of the world and his place in it. Failure was a great way to learn humility. Was humility usefull in controlling Fiendfyre? He hoped it was, for his sake.

A thick jet of bright yellow flame poured from the tip of his wand, tinged here and there with wisps of bluey-green. He focused on the locket, directed the roaring, screaming living flame toward it. It surged at its designated target, eager, _excited_. The moment the flames bathed the locket, the jewelry began to melt. It softened as it began to glow cherry red, then orange, then yellow, then it began to run as a liquid.

A face formed in the metal puddle, noseless and semi-human. Sirius saw it clear as day. He recognized _Tom_ as the piece of him that resided within the locket sought to escape. It pushed out of the growing puddle of metal like a grotesque boil. The metal sloughed away from the tiny black ghost as the hideous boil popped, and exposed it to the hungry fire. It screamed and rose into the air as it tried to fly from death, but solidified and crumbled to soot like a greasy smear of oil before a blowtorch.

Sirius felt a surge of joy as he claimed the victory, but reigned it in. He took his emotions in hand - all the rage and joy and hunger he'd turned into fire - and ruthlessly stomped them flat. Once the fire was out, he dropped his wand and felt the rush of regret he always felt afterward. It was like cutting off the part of himself that was most alive. The worst part about the whole thing was that he completely understood great uncle Antares.

He drew a shuddering breath and forced himself to calm down. Part of the danger of Fiendfyre was its seductiveness. He knew that, it just took a while for the feeling – the _thrill_ \- of it to fade.

"Master has dids it!" Kreacher croaked gleefully, "Master kills the nastybad magics! Filthy halfblood snake-man dies!"

Sirius looked over at the wrinkled elf as he shook his over-large hands in the air over his head and danced a little dance. The poor thing had never looked happier, and it made forgetting the living flames so much easier. He picked up his wand again and nodded to the old elf.

"For Reggie. And for you, Kreacher. I am proud of your loyalty. I think Reggie would be too."

Kreacher stiffened up to his full height. "Kreacher serves the House of Black!"

Sirius nodded in return. "More than that, you are a _member_ of the House of Black, Kreacher. I hope we can work together to make it a House we can be proud of."

New times, new ideas. When he'd been Harry's age, he'd been all about new things, and it was time to start learning again. One of _Tom_ 's horcruxes was gone now, and he had no reason to believe the rest wouldn't follow. It was time to start with best foot forward now, before the old ways were swept aside completely. He wanted to be proud of who he was for a change, and he knew that would never happen until he made it.

Kreacher's lower lip trembled and tears ran from his cheeks like a leaky tap as he tottered over to him and wrapped his arms around his knees.

Sirius patted him on the shoulder. "There there, old man. We'll sit down and talk when we get home, alright?"

"Kreacher goes to makes tea for wonderful Master." He croaked, then vanished with a _pop_.

"Well, now at least we know we can destroy them." Harry noted. Hermione smiled at Sirius while she held Harry's hand and swung it gently between them.

"One down. How many to go?" He asked.

"Sadly we won't know that until one of us can root around in Tom's mind." Hermione replied.

"You want to _what_?" He recoiled in revulsion.

"Yeah, not looking forward to it, but it's necessary to make sure." Harry said with a grimace.

"Once we know for sure, we'll obliviate it out of each other. I don't want that filth in my Harry any more than he wants it in me." Hermione assured him.

Harry leaned over and whispered something to her. She blushed and shoved his shoulder with hers. Ah... Right. So they'd been intimate then. Recently, too. He should probably make some excuses and give them some time alone.

"Well, I hate to destroy horcruxes and run, but I have things that need tending and Kreacher's just made tea as well, so I should probably get it while it's hot."

"We won't be around next weekend, so you know. I want to get everything done that needs doing on Saturday because we're spending all Sunday out on a date. We'll be here the weekend after if you want to drop by then." Harry explained.

"If there's anything I can do, don't hesitate. I'm only an elf away, and I will almost certainly want a break from redecorating with Kreacher." He made a sour face.

Harry shook his hand with a grin. "Count on it."

He had to smile at that. It felt like having a family again. A real one. "I appreciate that, Harry." He grinned at them and turned to go, it was a short if exhausting hike to the Apparition point in the gardens. He would have to make more effort to build up his body again as well. Kreacher would no doubt continue to try to stuff him to the gills with food, but he needed exercise, and the panting, sweaty mess he was by the time he reached the gardens drove the point home.

Before he took up jogging though, there were some people who needed to know about Dumbledore's perfidy.

  
  


* * *

  
  


It was afternoon on the third day when Lammy became aware that something was wrong. She had just put the final touches on her diagram of how Harry and Hermione's bedroom had been before Hermione had decided to demolish it. Lammy thought it would be useful to have a reference to work from in case Hermione suddenly decided she wanted it back how it had been before. She had just finished the labels on the large oak dresser - which had become a tree - when it hit her that something was wrong.

It was too quiet, she decided. That was it. Then she noticed that it was the vibration. The constant, pulsing vibration that only abated for a few minutes at a time during the last three days had actually stopped. The floor wasn't vibrating, the walls weren't vibrating, and there wasn't a constant low, pulsing buzz from the china cupboard. Everything was still and quiet.

She wanted to go and see if they were alright, see if they wanted or needed anything. She knew she shouldn't though, they hadn't said that Hermione was herself again yet. She wasn't concerned for her own safety, rather she didn't want to do anything to make her best friend freak out.

She sighed with the frustration of it and hoped she was back to normal soon. Until then, she would have to trust Brolly to look after them.

She went back to her diagram and started to make tiny labels for the grand wardrobe - which had also become a tree.

  
  


* * *

  
  


She swam through clear, faintly aquamarine water. She glided nearly effortlessly over the rippled white sand below and reveled in the feeling of the flow of water over her scales. She could see his tail lazily stir the water from the beach as she approached, and she smiled inside, satisfied that he guarded their three eggs. They would be Shardlings soon, once they broke out of their eggs, and then they would have a family of their own. A strange duality of contentment and fear overtook her as she broached the surface of the water.

Her eyes opened, and the first thing she saw was his dark, unruly mop. He lay half across her, with his lower half resting at an upward angle on a hill of galleons. His mouth was half-open on her left breast, and a trail of his drool flowed over it and underneath, down her left ribs.

Warmth bloomed in her chest and she smiled as she lifted her hand from her stomach to run her fingers through his hair. In some ways he was so mature, so responsible, so intelligent and sensical... and then she got to see him as a little boy, so open and vulnerable, peaceful and completely adorable. She wondered if their own son would look -

 _Oh no_.

The pile of gold, the claw marks in the ceiling, the stone and plants everywhere... her memory supplied her frenzied need to have him inside her, and she panicked internally. She’d been in _Heat_. She'd been _fertile_. They'd had sex for who knew how long? She didn't even know what day it was. There was no way she wasn't pregnant. She was going to have a baby. But... dragons had clutches! Babies? How many babies?! No no no no no, it was too soon for that! Much, MUCH too soon!

"Mm... Feels nice." Harry mumbled into her breast.

"Harry..." She croaked. Even to her own ears she sounded like Aunt Edna, like she'd been a smoker for forty years. What had she... Right, there had been screaming. She cleared her throat, but it didn't improve anything. "Harry? Tell me we didn't have sex for however long while I'm fertile with no birth control? Please?"

He raised his head off of her, and wiped his chin, then wiped her ribs. "You sound like you don't _want_ to be a mum at fifteen." He grinned at her.

As if it was any time to joke! Was she or wasn't she!? She could feel her face contort as she chose her next words, but they never left her.

"Before you get upset, because I can see that you're not kidding - no we didn't. It was one of the things I talked about with Sirius. He showed me the contraceptive spell he uses, and since he doesn't have any children I have to assume it works. I cast it with every scrap of power I had, so I hope that was enough. Sirius says it's geared to last about a month, so I won't be potent again until then."

She sighed with relief and relaxed again, the connection to her panic cut.

"I want to find a nice spot on the grounds and start building a cave for the next time." He continued in a more relaxed tone, "Someplace where we can leave everything like it is now and just go there. Makes more sense than changing everything around." He kissed her as she smiled up at him.

"I'd like that." She rasped. She tried to lift her hand to drape it over the back of his neck to bring him down for another kiss, but the act of raising her arm engaged her core muscles, and every single muscle in her stomach - including some she hadn't known about - screamed at her to never, ever move again.

She groaned and squeaked at the same time, and gently lowered her arm again.

She breathed through the pain for a moment until it dulled.

"Are you alright love?" Harry's voice was suddenly tense.

"Fine... Overuse. It feels sort of good in a masochistic kind of way, but also ow. Stomach is very ow."

Harry had the gall to laugh at her.

"Laugh while you can, git! Soon as I heal..." She croaked.

He leaned down and kissed her anyway, soft and tender and full of his scent - She felt herself grow warm again, and she decided that was enough of that. Healing first, more sex later.

Harry Resonated, and she floated up off the huge mound of gold - now mostly scattered about the room - and her housecoat wrapped itself around her before she gently floated down into a chaise.

"I'll go see about some soup or something?" He knelt and brushed her hair back from her face.

"I love you so much, Harry. That would be just wonderful. Tea too please. And steak. And more steak... I'm a bit famished, actually." She grinned sheepishly.

He chuckled at her and kissed her again, then wrapped his own housecoat around his nakedness before he exited the bedroom.

She smiled to herself as he went. She loved his cute, sexy little arse. She relaxed against the chaise and just _felt_. Yes, her stomach hurt from her breasts to her knees, but she also felt... Happy. Content. Relaxed. Loved. _Satisfied_. All of it, woven together and wrapped around her like a blanket.

A year ago she'd have wept to _imagine_ feeling what she felt now. There was more to it though, there was something...

Trust.

Harry _could be trusted_.

The realization cut her to the quick and made her eyes sting.

Even when she was not in her right mind, he looked out for her best interests. How many boys would have taken responsibility _before_ having sex? One more count she needed one finger for.

She wiped her face despite the pain it caused her stomach. Harry returned while she still grimaced in pain and wiped tears away.

He placed the tray on the floor next to her and knelt beside her almost instantly. "What's wrong?" He asked with a frown.

She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck while she cried even harder. "Nothing!" She sobbed, "You're wonderful and I love you and I don't deserve you."

He chuckled softly as he kissed her tears away and held her close. "You know how I feel about that kind of talk, love." He rubbed her back as she held onto him for dear life.

"I know." She sniffed, "I'm stuck with you, you love me, I love you, and deserve doesn't get a look in."

"No matter what you think, Hermione, without any of this I would still choose you and you'd still be stuck with me."

"I love you _so much_ , Harry." She squeezed him even tighter. "I just... I can't even express it properly. Words are just too small."

He stroked her hair as he held her. "I think the last three days were a pretty good start." She could hear the grin in his voice.

"Oh. Augh." She let go of him and fell back against the chaise as she clutched her stomach. "Don't make me laugh. Fuck that hurts."

He fed her a spoonful of the soup before she decided she'd recovered enough to take the bowl from him.

"Was it really only three days?" She asked with a semi-frown.

"It's late morning on February tenth now, but I figure we probably slept for twelve hours or so."

"Which would put it at almost exactly three days. Too short. Too soon and too short. Dammit."

"That's bad?" He asked around a mouthful of steak.

She sighed between spoonfuls of soup. "It means Mother's advice will and won't apply to me. I'm going to have to start a journal to track things until I learn my own pattern. I hope it isn't more than once a year."

"So it's more of a hating-to-have-to-wait-and-see-instead-of-knowing-everything-right-now-Hermione-thing, rather than anything bad." His wry grin said it all.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

**1** **: Excerpt from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling.**

  
  



	15. Chapter 15

  
  


They came in low over the trees, silent and dressed all in black against the night sky. The lights from the village in the distance did nothing to pierce the gloom that squat within that particular patch of forest, but then that gloom had nothing to do with a lack of light.

They descended through the trees and landed on the thick mat of slowly decaying pine needles that blanketed everything.

"Can you feel that?" She whispered.

"Generations of hatred and violence?" He held his hand out, but stopped extending his arm just as she was about to tell him to stop. "Just feeling that explains a lot. His mother grew up inside that, beaten and abused for not being what others wanted."

She stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Just like me." She said softly, "What might I have become if not for you?"

He kissed the side of her head. "You'd have been you. You're too strong for anything else. You might not have been as thoroughly snogged, but you'd still have been you." He rubbed her back reassuringly.

She smiled softly and kissed him. "Thanks all the same."

"My ongoing pleasure." He smiled back at her.

"Once he's gone for good I want to come back here and erase this. It's too _wrong_ to let stand. Just like the cave." She pulled her wand out and cast the spell to reveal the Wards they could feel but not see.

"Agreed." He said grimly. "But we should document why. We should record how terrible this is so that others understand it's gone for a good reason."

"And that the family destroyed itself because of it." She agreed. "Multiple layers. The dissuasion is just the first. I'd wager the others are serious if not lethal."

He sighed. "It would be so much easier if we didn't need to be sneaky. Are there any more closer to the door or inside?"

She shook her head. "No, the only wards are around the perimeter. Between the wards and the shack there are some traps. Probably more inside."

"Thanks. Curious, isn't it? How there are dead tree branches on the outside of the Wards but not the inside?"

"The Wards feed on the forest in general to stay in place. Gross, but effective." She wrinkled her nose.

"Seems to be a family trait. Probably where he got the idea in the first place." He looked around, and his shifted eyes saw the faint, whip-like tendrils that radiated underground away from the Wards to entangle nearby tree roots. "Can you see the roots coming off the Wards underground?"

"Yes... Oh! If we move some, we'll alter the shape of the Wards without triggering them!" She whispered excitedly.

"That's where I was going with that, yeah." He paused to grin at her.

"You _were_ , but I got there first." She stuck her tongue out at him.

He rolled his eyes at her. "It's not a competition."

"No, of course not." She frowned at him, then grinned impishly. "If it were, I'd win."

He chuckled quietly. "No-one I'd rather lose to. Remind me to thank Luna again for that Ward book."

He took a deep breath and let it out, and as he exhaled, he extended a tendril of his own power down through the ground toward the roots of the Wards. The siphoning tentacles of the base of the Wards shuddered as his tendril of power approached them, and detached from the tree roots they partially strangled. He teased the questing tendrils and led them far to the right side of the shack, to a tree that was free of predation by the Wards.

"It's working." She said, "There's a wedge open in the front."

He carefully wrapped the over-extended tendrils around the roots of that tree and withdrew his own as they began to drain the tree slowly.

He opened his eyes and saw she was already at work. A tree branch the thickness of his arm floated silently through the opening in the Wards and changed into a squirrel monkey that scampered toward the front door of the shack.

It leaped into the air to get to the handle of the door, and was met by a pair of piercing fangs as the snake's corpse that was nailed to the front of the door struck it. It squawked as it landed on the ground again and went stiff.

"Well, now we know where he got his penchant for using snakes." She said with a disgusted look. She dropped her wand to her side, and the poor little monkey turned back into a tree branch that went limp and rotted into mush in seconds.

He flicked his wand, and a smaller tree branch floated toward the shack, but this one became a tiny green dragon before it reached the door, and fluttered through the air to land on the windowsill, out of reach of the guardian snake. The little green hissed at the snake, and butted its head against the glass pane. Once, twice, three times it banged its little head against the window, and the fourth time they were rewarded with the faint tinkle of broken glass.

"There's nothing inside." He said. His eyes were closed, and she knew he saw through the tiny dragon's eyes. "Some piles of mould that used to be furniture... Shards of broken and mouldy wood that used to be cabinets and roof... There's a bit of floor that looks cleaner than the rest."

She heard a tiny wail come from inside the shack, and then he swayed on his feet. She stepped into him quickly and held him up as his eyes opened. "Auchk." He spat. "Entrail expelling curse on the floor. Sick bastard. I'd wager that's the spot."

"Are you alright?" She asked, "You want me to - ?"

"No, I'm good, thanks. I turned it back into a stick when I saw. I'll just _Draconofors_ it again."

"Glad we decided not to go in." She said as she kissed his cheek and backed up a step.

"Me too, you'd have had to save my arse three times already." He winked at her.

"It's a decent arse. I think I'll keep it." She winked back.

He smiled and settled himself again, and extended his magic into the shack.

"Looks like it was a one-time use." He said after a few moments. "Little guy has the floorboard up... There's a small chest under there, not much bigger than he is. Damn."

"What is it?" She put her hand on his shoulder, in case he swayed again, but he didn't.

"There's a ring inside the chest. Compulsion on the chest to put the ring on, then some kind of withering curse on the ring. Little guy shrivelled into dust."

"Is the chest open?" She asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, didn't have time to close it. Ring just fell back into it."

"Okay good. My turn." She flicked her wand at a twig on the ground nearby, and it sailed to her hand and became a small hook. She flicked it again, and another nearby dead branch became a crow. The crow hopped into her hand, picked up the hook, flew toward the shack, and squeezed in through the broken window.

"Alright, have the ring..." She said after a minute, "Chest closed again... Floorboard back in place... Clean up a bit..."

The crow squeezed back out again through the broken window and flew back to them to perch on the ground in front of her, where it changed back into a stick.

"Nice." He complimented her, and kissed her temple.

She opened her eyes and flashed him a grin before she flicked her wand at the stick-that-had-briefly-been-a-crow, and it changed into a small, lidded box. "In case it's a permanent curse." She said.

He stooped and used the box to scoop up the ring and the wooden hook it was on, then sealed it shut and slipped it into his pocket.

"You're brilliant." He grinned at her.

"Not so bad yourself." She grinned back. She flicked her wand at the shack again, and the window repaired itself.

"One last thing to do." He said, and sunk a tendril of his power into the ground beneath them again. He distantly felt her wrap an arm around his waist, but his concentration was elsewhere. It took a few minutes, but he managed to lure the Wards back to their original positions. He had to touch the dying tree with his own power in order to get the Wards to attach, and for an instant he felt the Wards fill with his power. He felt the traps inside the shack reset as he withdrew, and he shuddered to feel their potential renewed. Still, it was better that they be active in case Tom came looking. At least the poor dying tree the Wards had re-attached to was spared their drain for a few days.

"Are we forgetting anything?" He asked her.

He could see her go through the itemized checklist in her head. "No, that's everything." She said, and took his hand.

They lifted off the ground and rose to become black patches against the twinkling sky. After a few moments of slowly receding into the distance they simply vanished and left the night sky to twinkle on uninterrupted.

  
  


* * *

  
  


It began with a dream.

She sat at the fireplace in the great room at the manor, Harry at her side, their children on the next sofa, Mother and the MacFustys scattered in chairs. They shared photos of their little cabin in the forest, their hut at the beach.

She looked up from her favorite picture of Harry, naked and reaching for the camera, to find everyone else had gone and left her alone with Harry. He had his head in her lap and purred happily. She stroked his hair, then his purring took a deeper tone, and began to vibrate her sensitive bits.

"Mmmmm." She moaned. She _loved_ his mouth on her. She adjusted her position on the sand as Harry hooked her legs over his shoulders. The warm sun and his kissing mouth and writhing tongue made her stomach melt and pushed her higher and higher toward her peak. He _spoke_ "I love you, Hermione." Inside her, and that pushed her over the edge into the white nothingness of pure pleasure.

She opened her eyes to see Harry grin at her from between her legs, beneath the covers.

"Good morning." He said.

She smiled back at him as she swam in waves of warm, tingly afterglow. "Wake me up like that more often."

He laughed and kissed the insides of her thighs before he slipped out the bottom of the bed and stood up. He was naked and fully erect as he crossed to their 'kitchen' and began to fuss with things. The sight of him hard like that made her purr in all the right places.

He spent a few moments cooking, and she was disappointed to see his erection deflate, but she supposed it was better than him being aroused over cooking. On the other hand, the sight of him preparing food naked was something of a surprise turn-on. She tucked the discovery away for later study.

He finished what he was doing, brought a tray over to the bed, and put it in her lap after he smoothed the covers down.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Hermione. " He kissed her, and she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck to keep him there until she was satisfied.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Harry." She smiled at him with all the love and appreciation she felt. "You're so wonderful, Harry. You make me feel so good. So loved."

Harry laughed. "Well that _is_ sort of the point you know, _I_ _love_ _you_." He grinned and kissed the side of her head before he settled into the bed next to her and took a bite of his own breakfast.

She had another of those moments when she looked at where she was and what she was doing from outside herself, and just as every time before, she boggled at what she might've done to deserve the life she had. It wasn't just morning orgasms or breakfast in bed or every one of the million little things he did that showed her he loved her. It was that _he wanted to_ in the first place. He thought _she was worth it_.

"Sorry love, no time for woolgathering. Eat up while it's hot, we still have to shower and get to the ministry."

That brought her out of her musing. "Ministry? Why are we going to the ministry?"

He just smiled at her and ate breakfast. Augh!

"Fine, smug git. You're infuriatingly good at keeping a secret when you want to be." She stuck her tongue out at him and smiled while she ate her eggs.

He chuckled. "Don't ruin the surprise, hon. You'd only be cheating yourself." He kissed the side of her head again and finished his own breakfast.

"Thank you for breakfast, sexy naked chef."

"My pleasure." He grinned at her and put his arm around her while she ate. When she finished, he kissed her and stole the tray from her and cleaned everything, then escorted her to the shower and washed her body while she washed her hair - then used her to wash his own body by rubbing against her while she giggled and tried to finish her hair.

They left their apartment under disillusionment, and made it to the front gates of the school by nine am. Once there, Harry offered his arm to her, and they appeared in Whitehall, next to a red phone box. She recognized it as being the entrance they'd used when they got their Apparation licenses.

Harry held the door for her to exit on level six, and again when they entered the International Portkey Office. She tried to wait and see, she really did, but there were several places they could be going abroad for a date, and everything that came to mind made her giddy with excitement. She'd never been outside Britain, let alone to any romantic getaways.

When the queue showed them to the counter, Harry simply said "Portkey package for MacFusty, please."

The witch behind the counter checked her list, found the name, and waved them through to the back room with a monotone "Room eleven."

The "rooms" turned out to be ten by ten cupboards with nothing but a small round table in the center, barely large enough to hold a dinner plate. The table in their 'room' held a bent, rusty can opener, and a rolled-up, empty tube of toothpaste.

Harry picked up the empty toothpaste tube and slipped it into his pocket. "One thing to do before we actually go..." He took out his wand and cast Notice-Me-Not on both of them. "We'll be landing in a populated area." He explained.

She bounced in place. "Let'sgolet'sgolet'sgo!"

Harry laughed as he held the can opener out to her. She grabbed hold of it immediately, and he whispered "Je T'aime."

Hermione had only travelled by Portkey once before, to Potter Glen. Other than that she'd never travelled anywhere really, except Aunt Edna's house once when she was little, but that was by car. She gasped at the sensation of being hooked around the waist and jerked backward, but the spinning as they flew reminded her of the carousel at the local park she used to love as a child. For some reason the portkey office at the Ministry made far inferior portkeys compared to the one she wore on her finger.

They landed somewhat heavily - enough so that she had to flex her knees and hold onto Harry for support. He was clearly in the same boat she was, as he was just as unprepared for the landing and grabbed both her shoulders for support as well.

"Alright?" He asked when they were stable.

She nodded back with a smile. "Fine. Where are we?" She looked to her right, and saw a rooftop cafe. They stood inside the dining area, just off to the side. A sign above the doors to the interior of the building read 'Cafe Creatures'. She looked back at Harry, and he flicked his eyes to her left. She turned to look, and saw a field of rooftops that stretched about a mile into the distance, right up to the feet of the Eiffel Tower.

Paris.

She squealed and crashed into Harry and squeezed him for all she was worth.

"I always wanted to come here!" She released him and looked back at the Eiffel Tower. She needed to burn the moment into her memory.

"Glad I could be here for it then." He smiled. "Come on, I thought we'd start with some shopping. We'll get to the Eiffel Tower, but not until later in the day."

She looked from the tower back to him. "Promise?"

He grinned back at her. "We have reservations."

"I love you." She squeezed his hand excitedly.

"Well, that's handy." He said, and swung their arms between them as he led her inside the building.

The doors opened into a large hallway that stretched left and right in a huge circle. The roof was a beautiful piece of iron and glass art in the shape of a dome that covered the entirety of the open space in the center of the cylindrical building. There were four floors in the cylindrical building, and each one housed dozens of shops. The whole thing looked like a kind of multi-floored shopping Colosseum.

She stepped to the railing to look over, and saw a wonderland of gold and colour and bustling activity.

"This is beautiful!" She smiled at Harry. "Where are we?"

"Galeries Lafeyette." Harry said. "One of Fleur's million and one things you simply _must_ do in Paris."

She knew there was nothing between Harry and Fleur. She knew that. Fleur was as much her friend as she was Harry's. It still made her growl inside though. "I knew you were sneaking off to rendezvous with another girl!" She accused jokingly.

Harry rolled his eyes. "You caught me. I've been snogging my way through the female population of Hogwarts." His voice dripped with sarcasm as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. "You know I'm not interested in any other girl, Hermione. You're it for me. Forever and ever. I'd rather gargle potion cauldron leftovers than kiss another girl. I'd rather stand in the boys loo and breathe deeply after Finnegan and Weasly have been in there. I'd rather -"

"Okay, okay. I get it. Yes, I know there's nothing going on, it just..."

He tilted her chin upward and kissed her lips softly. "It's okay. I love your jealousy too." He smiled into her eyes with his own.

She nodded and buried her face in his chest for a moment.

"Come on, we have two other shopping places to go before lunch." He disengaged and held her hand again.

"Why so much shopping?"

"Because you'll need a dress for dinner. And shoes. And whatever else catches your fancy."

"I see... What about you?"

"I'm part of 'whatever else catches your fancy'. If you see something you want to see me in for dinner, maybe something that complements your dress..."

"Come on, we're wasting time!" She grinned at him and dragged him toward the nearest store.

They didn't go into _every_ store - there wasn't time, but she felt satisfied as they left the Galeries that she had seen the majority of it. She found a couple of dresses she liked so much that Harry wouldn't let her leave without them. She didn't really like spending money like that, but Harry just gave her _that look_ , and she gave in with a sigh. She took to shopping for him as well after that. She found a brilliant shirt for him, it was a dark emerald green to match his eyes, and the fabric glittered subtly when it caught the light. She wanted to find him a nice suit to match later, something that put butterflies in her stomach. Harry took their purchases and stowed them in his ever-present trunk.

Harry re-applied their concealment before they Apparated. When they appeared, they were in a street filled with the cutest little boutiques. The smell of something hot and sweet carried faintly on the breeze.

"Where is this?" She asked him.

"Boulevard St-Germain." He answered. "I thought it looked really nice and I wanted to walk around with you."

She wrapped her arm around his waist and put her fingers in his back pocket as they walked. "It is really nice. These shops, the street, the whole thing is just adorable. Thank you for this."

"I'm just glad you're having fun, Hermione. I know shopping isn't really your thing."

"I just hate spending yo - _our_ money. I know we could spend it constantly and never run out, but I'm used to having to scrimp and save to get myself a new quill."

"Well you can relax then, we won't spend a single knut all summer."

She hugged him one-armed. "I know, I can't wait! Just you and me and a forest full of dragons. We'll have to find a spot that isn't within someone's Territory, of course."

"Of course."

"Just a few trinkets to find, a few pinkskins to purge, and then months of bliss before we start school at the Accademia di Magia di Napoli." She smiled at him, and his return smile told her how much he loved her excitement.

"And start working on our Masteries." He agreed.

"And studying for the Wizengmot." She sighed.

"Maybe." The bright vision of their future darkened as his smile fell.

She stopped and turned him to face her. "Maybe?"

He tightened his lips. "The bit of reading I've done so far on it is making me want to burn the whole thing to the ground, not join it. It's like every privileged family has worked for centuries to assert and preserve their own privilege while tearing down others at the same time. It seems like all the normal wizarding folk are just pawns and tax revenue for the Wizengamot."

"We knew it was going to be bad." She said, "People like Riddle wouldn't get a foothold otherwise."

He sighed. "No, you're right. Of course you are. I'll try to look at it from different angles and not get angry. There's a lot of time between now and then. Maybe it will be different for Harry Potter than it is for Duncan MacFusty."

"Not looking forward to having reporters chasing us all the time." She frowned.

"I'm certain once enough of them make you angry they'll stop making that mistake." He chuckled.

They approached a crowd of people standing next to a cart as they talked, and the smell of hot and sweet intensified as they neared.

"What's that?" She asked.

"If I had to guess, I'd say probably a crepe vendor. Fancy a crepe?"

"I do, actually." She grinned at him. To be in Paris, walking Boulevard St-Germain with her husband, snacking on crepes. She needed to start a journal just to keep track of all the amazing days she had. She also needed to think of where to go next year. Somewhere he'd really like. No way was he getting away with monopolizing Valentines' Day.

They stood in line with the rest of the crowd, and she was able to pick out what she wanted from what everyone else was eating all around them. She raised on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek as she said "Stawberries and cream please." When it was their turn to order.

They continued to walk and shop as they ate. Harry bought one with marshmallows and crumbled digestives, all drizzled with chocolate. She liked that one too, but the strawberries and cream were light and refreshing and the cream had just a hint of lemon to it.

Best of all, there were a number of men's clothing stores on the boulevard, so she got to sit and eat her crepe while she watched him parade in front of her in different suits. She bought him a dark charcoal grey suit at a shop called Ralph something or other. It fit him so perfectly it made her heart race.

"That's the one." She told him when he came out of the changeroom. "You look _smashing_ , Harry. I want you to wear that at school just to make every other girl insanely jealous."

"And you'd be fine with the resulting attempts?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Of course not! I'd gut every last girl that touched you." She grinned at him.

He laughed and said "We'll see."

They Apparated to Le Bon Marche after Harry had stowed his new suit safely away in his trunk. The sheer artistic style of the displays in some of the stores beggared anything she had experienced before.

"It's like walking into an art museum where they use the art to sell you things." She noted absently as she craned her neck, trying to take it all in.

Harry chuckled. "We're doing the art museum after lunch, I didn't think we'd be doing it before lunch as well."

"We what?" She asked pointedly.

"As if I could bring you to Paris and _not_ take you to the Louvre. You'd kill me."

"Louvre after lunch." She repeated, a giddy bubbly feeling rose in her chest.

"We have tickets." He winked at her.

"Can we do lunch now then? I'm suddenly all shopped out." She grinned at him.

"Only if you're fine with wearing one of the dresses we bought this morning. Will one of those go with my suit?"

"The burgundy one will. That and the black shoes."

"Okay good. I'm glad you know these things. I'd still rather be naked." He stepped into her and hugged her warmly as he surreptitiously cast their concealment. "Lunch it is."

They appeared in front of a restaurant called Au Vieux Paris d'Arcole. The building was beige with turquoise trim around the windows, and a beautifully quaint painted wood shingle over the door proclaimed the age of the place. Wisteria vines grew up the outside of the building and her fingers covered her mouth as she took it in - even the bright purple patio tables and chairs. She blinked as her eyes filled with water just as her heart filled with the character of the place and she finally realized that _she was in Paris._

"Wow, that's... colourful." Harry said. "Arielle said the place was a must, but she didn't mention... all that."

"I need to thank them both tomorrow." She said as she claimed the perfect seat at one of the patio tables. Harry just smiled at her and went inside.

Several of the other shops up and down the street had other vines growing up them, and she could just imagine what it looked like in spring when the leaves grew in and the Wisteria bloomed.

Harry brought her a menu when he rejoined her, and crouched behind her chair to read it with her.

"You're getting really good at this date stuff, you know." She said softly. "I want to snog you silly right now." The perfect romantic cafe, the perfect man, the perfect day. She could feel her own desire rising as he looked at her with those green eyes under his dark and wavy locks.

"Well, that _is_ sort of what today is all about, you-Mmf." She grabbed the back of his neck and sealed his blathering lips with her own. It was a romantic kiss, a loving kiss, with an undercurrent of promised ferocity. When she let him up for air she had her fingers buried in his hair, and people passing by on the street watched them with a smile.

The food was fantastic when it arrived, but when she looked up at him as they ate, she was struck with the strangest feeling of being _home_ , in a place they'd never been. Her chest squeezed with the overload of emotion she tried to feel all at once - wonder, excitement, gratitude, happiness, and if she were honest with herself, the delicate unfurling of a newborn confidence. His expression whenever he looked at her was intense - a reflection of her own swell of emotion, she realized. All of it - the new experiences, the whirlwind of emotions, her burgeoning understanding of his genuine care for her - it was more than she could process at once. It was all bigger than anything she could have imagined and utterly beyond her control. It left her feeling helpless to resist, like she was falling. She _was_ falling. She had already fallen, and still she fell.

That was the look in his eyes, she realized. He just didn't fight it. He _enjoyed_ it.

The food at Au Vieux was too good to last long, and when it was gone Harry Apparated them both to the Louvre.

They walked through the Louvre with arms wrapped around each other and her hand in his back pocket. Feeling his taut behind flexing under her fingers both stoked her want and kept her just satisfied enough to be able to focus on seeing the art all around her.

After the Louvre they stopped at Angelina for art made of pastry, then they took a stroll along the Seine.

"I could spend a month here." She told him with a wistful sigh.

"Done. Soon as we have time." He replied. "It would be like dating you every single day. I can't think of a better way to spend my life."

"Me either. About dating you, of course."

"I guess we'll just have to get married and date each other forever." He grinned at her and swept her into his arms and began to waltz with her along the river.

"I like that plan." She grinned back at him.

Harry cast concealment on them again, and Apparated them. They appeared this time in front of a large, stylish apartment building that had a pink facade with dark lettering on it that proclaimed it 'La Maison Rose'. It was clearly a restaurant, with patio tables that filled the narrow sidewalk all the way to the cobblestone road.

An older gentleman was seated _in_ the road on the far side with an easel and canvas in front of him, unperturbed by cars as they drove around him.

"Ey! Ey toi!" The man called out to them. "Portrait?"

Harry looked at her with a big, soppy grin. "Well, I had thought to come for a drink since I thought you might be thirsty, but I'd much rather have a portrait of you for the wall. What do you say?"

"I say no deal. I'd much rather have a portrait of _you_ for the wall."

"Both of us then?" He asked hopefully.

"Both of us." She agreed with a grin.

"Vendu!" Harry called out to the man.

They nicked a couple of chairs from the patio of La Maison Rose and seated themselves at the edge of the sidewalk. The french gentleman had already started swiping at his canvas with a pencil before they even sat down. Once they were seated, he looked up and frowned.

"Non non non! Plus Rapproches! La tete, oui? Toucher les tetes! Tu es amoureux! Montre le!"

Harry scooched his chair closer to hers and put his arm around her while she wrapped hers around him and leaned her head against his.

"Oui! Oui! C'est parfait! Ne bouge pas!" The painter gave them a thumbs-up and went back to the canvas, his arm swept and twitched like it had a seizure independent from the rest of his body.

"I'm in Paris." She told Harry. "My _husband_ brought me to Paris to visit the Louvre and Boulevard St-Germain, and now we're having our portrait painted in front of the most romantic restaurant I've ever seen. My wildest dreams were never this good, Harry. I love you so much."

Harry kissed the side of her head and then resumed pose. "I know exactly what you mean. My wife accepts me and loves me for who I am, warts and all. I love you so much I feel like I'm going to explode."

"That's it exactly. Plus I feel a little... I don't know. You're doing all this wonderful romantic stuff for me for Valentines Day, but what am I doing for you?" She was careful not to let her feelings disturb her smile for the artist.

"I... honestly don't have an answer for that. Isn't it for the guy to do the chasing and the wooing? Do you not want to be chased and wooed?"

"You do that for me all the time though. You're the only one who has ever made me feel wanted, Harry."

"I'm so sorry for that. I _do_ want you, you know. It's not just a feeling." He squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"But I want you too! Do you feel wanted? Do you feel like I want to spend the rest of my life with you?" She couldn't help it, she could feel her face being pulled toward upset.

"You tell me all the time, Hermione." His voice was soft and rumbly, and she could feel him as he spoke. "Every time you get angry at having to deal with the Hogwarts situation. Every time you promise to slowly dismember Death Eaters for interrupting our lives. Every time you stop yourself from getting territorial at Luna. Every time you visibly relax when I walk into the room. Every time you look over my homework. Every time you put your hand in my back pocket and squeeze my cheek. Every time we make love. I don't _just_ feel it, Hermione. I _see_ it. I _know_ it."

"And then you make me love you even more." She broke pose to taste his lips, just for a moment, just to show him how much she wanted him. "I've decided." She stated when she returned to her pose. "Next year it's my turn for Valentine's Day, and I'm taking you somewhere romantic for a date day."

"That's fair. We'll take turns for Valentines Day. We can chase and woo each other in an endless circle. I like it." He paused to pinch her behind and send excited tingles up her spine. "Speaking of which, when do you actually want to get married?"

"As soon as possible." She said impatiently.

"Okay, yeah, of course, but I meant what time of year? When you see yourself at your wedding, where is it? Is it spring or summer or fall?"

"Oh. Hmm... Realistically we'll have to wait until the Riddle is solved. Then you can announce who you really are-"

"And the first thing I will do after that is publically ask you if you'll marry me." He interrupted.

She snorted. "As if anyone will even notice at that point. People will be screaming to know where you've been and what's happened to you."

"I'll _make_ them listen. Nothing else is as important to me." He said determinedly.

"I'd be willing to wait a week or so until the furor has dwindled some." She smiled at him.

"Well... I'd really rather make absolutely certain everyone knows right away I'm going to marry you, but you might have a point. On the up side, we could spend all that time snuggling and talking about where you want to get married. Tropical beach wedding? Grand cathedral wedding? Do you fancy spring or summer or fall?"

"I honestly hadn't thought about it, Harry. Whenever we happen to finish doing what we need to do is fine with me. When I was little, before I realized I'd always be alone, I saw it as spring or summer, but now I'm just so thrilled to have it happen at all that I just want it _now_ , you know?"

"I do." He kissed the side of her head. "I know exactly what you mean. This will be the only one either of us gets though, so maybe waiting a little bit to make it perfect wouldn't be terrible."

She brushed her fingers down the far side of his jaw and turned him to face her as she kissed him tenderly again. "I love you so much, Harry. I swear I don't deserve you. You bring up a good point, I suppose waiting a little bit won't hurt."

"We should start talking about where and when then. Start thinking about what would make it perfect for you."

"Ideally I'd love to have it somewhere Mother can come. We should make a lovely little clearing in the forest behind our summer home. Bright green trees, cozy little cottage, and a few perches for Mother and the neighbours." Hermione smiled as she relaxed into him.

"That sounds wonderful." He sighed, "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"You're just jealous you didn't think of it." She grinned at him.

"I am, actually. Have I mentioned I love how bloody brilliant you are?" He kissed her temple again.

"Yes, but I'm not tired of hearing it yet." She squeezed his behind.

"Et c'est ca!" The artist proclaimed as he gestured them forward to look. Hermione felt a thrill and shot Harry a trepidatious smile as they crossed the street. She squeezed his hand as they both turned to look.

It had the energy of a Renoir, with the lighting and detail of a Rembrandt. They knew because they'd seen them both that very afternoon.

"That's beautiful!" She gasped. "C'est magnifique!" Did she really look like that?

"I call it 'Love in Bloom'." The artist said in French. "I hope you don't mind if I ask fifty francs for it? I need to buy more paints."

Harry took out his wallet and handed the man a thousand pounds. "What's your name, sir?" He asked.

"Hey, I can't take all this!" He protested, "People will think I robbed you!"

"I would pay more than that. I want to hire you to do our wedding portrait, if you're alright with that?" Harry said in French. "Call the rest a retainer."

"A wedding portrait? I can do that. When?"

"We're not sure when, but I will come find you when the time is right." Harry reassured.

"Oh, alright then I suppose you have a deal. Thank you very much!"

"I'm Duncan, this is Hermione. Who should I say does the best portraits in France?"

The artist laughed. "Certainly not me, my new friend! I'm Durand, Jean-Marc Durand. It's a pleasure to meet you both."

"Mister Durand, it is a pleasure to meet you as well. If you can make another like this later, you can consider your retirement paid for. I am impressed."

Jean-Marc nodded and laughed at that, and swept his arm toward the easel and the restaurant. "This _is_ my retirement!"

"I love your retirement, Mister Durand. Thank you so much for this!" Hermione gushed, still awed by the lifelike woman in the painting who so very clearly radiated love and contentment. She picked up the painting, careful not to touch any of the wet paint. "This is going to be perfect in the Great Room next to your grandparents."

Harry shook Jean-Marc's hand. "Thank you again, Mister Durand. We will be seeing each other again as soon as the obstacles to our wedding are cleared."

"I look forward to it, Duncan. Good luck." Jean-Marc smiled back and began to pack up his paints as they strolled away.

They found a quiet spot in the doorway of an apartment building with no-one else around, and Harry put the painting in his trunk in its own compartment to dry properly, and retrieved some cash to replace what he'd paid to Mister Durand. He stuck the portrait to the bottom of the trunk with a quick charm to prevent it sliding around.

When he'd finished and tucked his trunk back in his pocket, she dragged him against her in the doorway, wrapped her arms around his neck, and snogged the daylights out of him.

"Happy Valentines' Day to you too." He grinned down at her when she was satisfied enough to continue.

"Are you sure we can't just go home right now...?" She asked silkily as she slowly undid the top button of his shirt.

"I love your enthusiasm. One more stop before the tower. Wouldn't want to miss that, would you?"

She debated it. In the end, the fact that she could get him naked _after_ they visited the tower won, but it was a close thing. "Alright, I suppose I can have a bit of patience. I wouldn't want to ruin all your hard work and planning, after all."

Harry cast Notice-Me-Not on both of them again, and Apparated them.

They appeared next to a blue wall with every inch of it covered in carved writing. It was just just part of a building that faced a small park-like square, but couples crowded the square to look at it. She slowly realized as her eyes slid over the blue wall that every single piece of writing across the whole forty square meter space said "I love you" in a different language.

He wrapped his arms around her from behind as they looked at all the writing. "Je T'aime." He said softly next to her ear. "Boku ga anata o aishiteimasu. Te amo. Ich liebe dich. Jeg Elsker dig. Te queiro. I love you."

She turned in his arms and crushed him to her as her heart overflowed and filled her cheeks with wetness.

"I didn't have time to learn any of the difficult ones like Greek or Russian, sorry." He kissed the top of her head.

"Oh Harry." She let him go and wiped her cheeks with her sleeve.

"Hey, hey! I'm sorry love, I didn't mean to make you cry." He held her chin gently and wiped away the rest of her tears.

"Not all crying is because you're sad, Harry. My heart couldn't hold it all in, that's all." She pulled his face down to hers . "Te amo. Je T'aime. I love you, you wonderful boy." She kissed him after every 'I love you'.

"I... didn't know that. Promise you're not upset?"

"Promise. It would take a lot to make me upset after the day you're giving me." She smiled at him and kissed him again for good measure.

"Good. Don't go anywhere." His eyes sparkled and he got the roguish grin he always got before he did something dodgy.

"What are you-?" He vanished. She could feel him Resonate, so she knew he hadn't left her, he had just vanished from sight. She sighed and went to sit on the lip of a concrete planter that housed a tree. He'd planned the whole day, so he was up to something.

He appeared ten minutes later, perched next to her like he'd been there the whole time. His face was calm and mischievous, but she could see sweat made his shirt cling to his chest, and he had some kind of dust on him.

"What did you do?" She whispered at him.

He gave her the smuggest, most self-satisfied grin she had ever seen. "Looks like nothing, doesn't it?"

"Right now, yes. I don't have thermal goggles though... or magical ones."

The Grin got even bigger. "I came across a neat little array by accident when I was working on my new project. Look at it..." He looked around to make sure no-one was watching, "Like Mother would."

She looked around then too, and began to Resonate as she pushed magic into her eyes.

"Oh Harry!" She whispered in alarm and grabbed his arm as she saw what he'd done. Above the blue portion of the wall, in the white plaster of the building itself, he'd carved "HARRY LOVES HERMIONE" - in letters five feet tall!

"It's surrounded by that repeating array, so not even other magicals can see it, only you and me. Other dragons too, probably. The harmonic effect of that particular array is Unbreakable - which is what I was experimenting with when I discovered it - so even if that building is torn down, that piece of concrete it's written on will stay as it is until I remove it or magic ceases to exist. Harry Loves Hermione will float through space after the earth is dust, on and on forever."

"Oh Harry." She breathed. The thought of it spanning the universe endlessly made her insides melt.

He turned to look into her eyes. "I can't stand the thought that we'll only have a thousand or so years together, Hermione. It seems like the blink of an eye and I want more. I can't stand the thought of not being with you."

"I feel the same Harry, but I'm sure you'll get tired of my nagging, or bossiness or-"

"No. I won't." He interrupted, "I love those things, Hermione. You don't nag, you remind me of things I've forgotten because you care about me. You aren't bossy either, you just don't feel the need to waste time pleading over things that shouldn't be questions in the first place. You are always looking out for me, especially when I don't know I need you to. That's love, not bossiness. Care, not nagging. I love you, Hermione. All your doubts and insecurities and anger too. You're simply beautiful, inside and out, and I want you forever." His intensely green eyes locked onto hers and looked through her. She had never felt more open, more vulnerable - or more loved. Her eyes mirrored her heart and overflowed again.

"I guess we'll have to make eternal youth a family project then." She leaned in and kissed him with all the depths of her heart. "Because you are _never_ getting away from me, Harry. I will rip Death to pieces if I have to."

His eyes grew watery, and he broke into a smile. "I see what you mean." He said as he wiped them on his sleeve. "I love your ferocity. You are _so beautiful_." He took her face in his hands gently and kissed her long and lovingly. There was passion in his kiss, but rather than a consuming fire, eager and hurried, it was deep and pervading. Every nuance of his lips carried love she could feel in her magic.

She didn't care how long they kissed. She didn't care there were people wandering around or that some took pictures of them. All she wanted was him. It came as something of a shock, consequently, when Harry's wand vibrated and he broke the kiss reluctantly.

"Time to get changed and get to the tower. Wouldn't want to miss our reservations." He said as he kissed her again once.

"No..." She admitted, "But at the same time..."

"Plenty of time after dinner, love. Come on, hard work and planning, remember?"

She sighed. "Fiiiine. You're getting extra later though to make up."

"That sounds vaguely ominous." He grinned.

She laughed and kissed him again before she let herself be pulled to her feet.

They used the bathrooms of a nearby cafe to change, and Harry re-applied their concealment and Apparated them from directly outside in the bathroom hallway.

She was struck immediately with the size and grandeur of the tower when they arrived. The dark metal curved up and away from them and she craned her neck backward to take it all in.

"I so want to fly up there." She whispered to Harry.

They stood in the forecourt, surrounded by those who walked around and those who lined up to ride the elevator up into the tower proper. The Seine flowed lazily by on one side, and to the other she could see the flood of traffic down the Champs-de-Mars. There were large green grassy areas as well, all filled with people walking and talking and playing and enjoying picnics.

Harry looked at the time and relaxed some. "We have a bit of time if you want to look around."

She shook her head. "I do want to, but we'll be back here again later. I'm content to go along with your plans. Just promise me we can go fly around the top next time." She grinned.

"Promise. We might get in a little trouble for that, but I think the crime is worth the time."

"You're such a rebel." She winked at him.

He laughed. "On the contrary, I'm a civilized and conscientious lawbreaker."

She laughed and kissed him. "My very own Gentleman Outlaw."

He guided her by the hand, to the bored-looking woman in french auror robes who stood silently beside a doorway in one of the pilings. Everyone in the crowd of people around them stayed five meters away from the door at all times, without even realizing they were. When Harry and Hermione breached the bubble of space around the door, she came to attention instantly, her wand out and ready.

"Good evening, madame Auror." Harry said in french as he bowed slightly, "We have reservations for this evening, MacFusty, party of two."

"Wait a moment." She replied, and picked up a clipboard that was hanging on a peg near the door.

She scanned it for a moment, then tapped it. "Here you are." She tapped the clipboard with the tip of her wand, and the door next to her opened silently to reveal a small room with several chairs and no windows. "Enjoy your evening." She said, and motioned them through.

"Thank you, madame." Harry smiled.

Hermione followed him into the little room, and the door closed silently behind them. Before she could take a seat, the entire room began to rise. There was no frame of reference without windows, but they could feel the upward motion. It continued for a long moment before it jerked to a halt, and the door opened again.

The space before them was a dining room, filled with tables and chairs in a roughly circular group, and they all perched - perfectly stably - on nothing but thin air. There were several people seated at tables already who chatted amongst themselves like nothing was wrong, and waiters and waitresses came and went from the right side of the room; they vanished into nothingness and reappeared from it with perfect aplomb.

Classical music reached them from everywhere and nowhere, soft enough to be comfortable, loud enough to dance to. A witch in uniform stood behind a podium to their right, and she smiled at them when she saw the look on Hermione's face.

"Welcome to Le Sommet des Oiseaux." She said in French. "First time?"

Harry squeezed her hand reassuringly as he exited the little room - little elevator, she realized. He stepped out onto the nothingness like it was perfectly normal to speak to the welcome witch, so she joined him. It wasn't like she could actually fall anymore in any case. One more thing she loved him for.

"Yes, it is. Does it show that badly?" He asked her in french, with a smile.

The witch chuckled. "Some need to take a moment, some need to hold onto something solid, some need to go back down, and some simply enjoy it. You? You're fine."

Harry chuckled in return. "You're too kind, thank you. MacFusty, party of two please."

"Aha!" She tapped her podium, presumably at her guest ledger. "I wondered! I didn't expect you to be so young!"

"Uhh... thanks?" Harry raised his eyebrows as he looked back at Hermione.

The welcome witch laughed again, and gestured to one of the waitresses. She came over to them immediately.

"This is Maribelle, she will look after you this evening. Please enjoy your stay." She smiled again, and Maribelle led them to the dining floor. Maribelle was possibly mid-twenties, wavy blonde hair, grey eyes, and a curvy figure. To make matters worse, the uniform included a kind of cloth corset that cinched between her hips and armpits, and made her breasts seem _enormous_. Hermione's lips pressed tighter together.

Maribelle made sure they were seated - Harry held Hermione's chair for her like a gentleman, while Maribelle brought them menus.

"Good evening," Maribelle said as she handed them each a menu, "Would you like to start with something to drink? We have a lovely dry white from Loire."

She looked from Maribelle over to Harry. She'd never had wine before. She'd never even read a book on it.

Harry smiled at Maribelle. "I think we'll start with just water, and have some wine with dinner. Could we have the crostini Hors D'Oeuvres as well please?"

Maribelle bobbed her head at him. "I'll return shortly." She smiled and strode off toward the nothingness that the other waiters and waitresses disappeared into.

Hermione looked from the menu to the throng of tiny people far below her feet and grinned at him. "This is _fantastic_ , Harry."

His face shone with barely-contained excitement. " _Brilliant_." He said, "The french ladies all absolutely agreed we had to come here, every last one of them, and they wouldn't tell me why. They were even specific about the time we had to be here. I had no clue."

That put her hackles up. " _All_ of them?"

He blew her a kiss. "Yes, all of them. I had to chase down Fleur and Arielle after dinner and they were in their carriage - which is a huge chateau inside, by the way. They went and got all the other girls and they had a big discussion about where I should take you. That's how I know where we're going and what to expect. At least until now. They didn't tell me anything about this place except the name. They even took care of the reservations for us."

"How were they dressed? _Were_ they dressed?" The thought of him surrounded by french tarts in nothing but breezy nightgowns made her blood boil.

"I would have exited immediately if they'd been anything less than fully dressed. It wouldn't be proper." He replied with a frown.

Just like that, she cooled. He wasn't some slobbering Weasley, chasing anything in a skirt. He was Harry fucking Potter. Her husband. He loved her. He wouldn't cheat. He wouldn't even look. He loved her. She didn't have to worry. Harry Loves Hermione, on and on forever. She took a couple of deep breaths and calmed down.

"I'm sorry, Harry." She whispered. "I didn't mean to imply you would-"

"No apology necessary." He cut her off, "I love you Hermione, and that includes the way you get jealous or territorial or whatever it is. It's evidence. It's proof that you're afraid of losing me, and that makes me know that you want me. I won't ever be attracted to another witch Hermione, but I like that you're afraid of it. I love that you're as afraid of losing me as I am of losing you. And that you're ferocious about that too." He grinned at her.

Maribelle appeared with their crostini and two glasses of water then. "Have you decided on your plats?" She asked.

"I would love the Filet Mignon please." Hermione replied. She'd read somewhere that it was supposed to be the best steak you could get.

"Make that two, medium rare please." Harry smiled charmingly at Maribelle, and she could see the waitress's eyes light up.

"And your preference for wine?" She asked, her focus entirely on Harry.

"I don't know anything about wine, so we'll trust your choice?" He asked as he looked to Hermione with raised eyebrows. She nodded back at him with an affirmative smile.

"Wonderful, I won't let you down!" Maribelle smiled radiantly as she took their menus and bustled off to wherever it was they went beyond the invisibility barrier - presumably the kitchens.

Hermione sighed internally. Harry might be fine with her urge to maim women making eyes at him, but it was still annoying to put up with. Even when she knew for a fact they had no chance.

Harry reached out and interlaced their fingers on the table while they nibbled the crostini with brie. Harry's eyes were only on her, their infinite green depths shone as they talked about the day. When Maribelle showed up with their steaks a few minutes later, she was all polite professionalism after a glance at Hermione's face.

She realized she would have to get over the jealousy at some point. Harry belonged to her, just as much as she belonged to him. He'd _shown_ her that he loved her that day, from even before she'd woken up - hell, he'd shown her that he loved her every day for months. Just as she knew she would have to get over the jealousy, she likewise knew that was an endeavour that would take years. She tucked that resolution into the back of her brain on her ongoing task list, and devoured the most delicious steak she had ever tasted.

Harry had enjoyed the food as much as she did, as he had been silent since Maribelle delivered it, but as she was putting the last bite of it in her mouth, Harry's voice carried to her ears.

"Ohhhh. I get it!" He said under his breath.

She looked up at him, and his plate was empty. His eyes looked over her shoulder beyond her. She turned to see what he was looking at, and saw all of Paris laid out before them as the sun slid inexorably behind the western horizon.

"Hermione, would you dance through the Parisian sunset with me?" He asked. His eyes shone, and his expression was hopeful, open, vulnerable. How was she supposed to refuse? How could she even hear those words and see his gorgeous face and remain _solid_?

"I would love to." She smiled back at him.

He stood and offered his hand, then swept her into a waltz the instant she was free of her chair. She laughed at his impatience as they spun away from the group of tables, out over nothingness toward the sunset.

"I never thought I would ever hear words like those strung together, Harry. Thank you for that. Thank you for today, but most of all thank you for being you."

"I only hope this goes a little way toward showing you how you make me feel. You make me so happy Hermione, I can barely contain myself. I love your mind, I love your strength, I love your focus, your seriousness, and your laugh. I love the way you melt when I rub your feet. I love the way you flush from your chest to your hair when you... you know. I love the way you wrinkle your nose when you're being mischievous. I love the way that no matter how much I learn about you, there's always more to learn." Harry flicked his eyes toward the sunset, now peach and purple as twilight settled on Paris. "I love how with all of twilit Paris right there, it's pale and paltry compared to you."

Warmth bloomed in her chest as he talked and spread outward even into her fingers. He was so adorable she'd have fallen for him right then and there even if he wasn't talking about her.

"I love the way you gush when you're excited." She replied. "I love how you're secretly such a romantic. I love how much you enjoy learning. I love your sense of right and wrong. You make me feel okay, Harry. You make me feel like I'm not a freak. You make me feel like I'm not only normal, but worthwhile. Desirable. Like I'm worth putting up with my huge and glaring flaws."

"You were never anything but beautiful to me, Hermione. You know that."

"I do." She smiled at him. "You were as well, but..."

"But?"

"Buuuut... When I saw you on that train the first time... You were some rich girl's Christmas Morning. I was just peeking in the window at it, it wasn't meant for me. That's why I couldn't talk to you no matter how much I tried to. If I had it would have just been getting my hopes up for nothing. But... you weren't some untouchable dream. You were _my_ Christmas Morning. I know that you love me, Harry. I _know it_. I still struggle to believe it's really happening sometimes, but I know it. All of twilit Paris is right there, and it's you who's given it to me. This is the best day of my entire life, Harry."

She closed the distance between them then, and pressed her body against his while she lay her head on his shoulder. They danced like that, just holding each other close until the sun slid below the horizon and its last failing rays were swallowed by night.

They paused for a few moments after they stopped dancing, and looked out over Paris lit from within by millions of lights. It was another sight she would not forget.

Harry paid the bill and left a generous tip for Maribelle - too generous in her opinion - then held her hand as they rode the elevator to the ground. He cast concealment on them both before the doors opened, and she raised her eyebrow at him.

"It's against statute to Portkey in public without it." He replied to her unspoken question.

"So we're going home then?" She asked.

"Unless you'd rather not?"

"No, it's the perfect time to leave Paris. I would've been fine with going home earlier, but you were right. Le Sommet des Oiseaux was just perfect." She waited for him to pull out the toothpaste tube, but he took her hand instead.

"I'm glad you think so, but it's time we Portkey Home Now."

The magic of their rings spun them immediately home, and they landed gently in the Garden.

"Thank you for the best date -" She started, but stopped when she saw him shake his head.

"Oh it's not over yet." He said softly.

"It isn't?"

He shook his head again. "I just had to take you to the one place I can properly show you how I feel about you. How you make me feel."

She frowned and wondered what else he had up his sleeve. She hoped he hadn't gone to any _more_ trouble. "Where's that?" She asked.

He just smiled at her and brushed a curl back from her chin. He kissed her softly and then bent to pick her up in his arms.

"Bed." He said.


	16. Chapter 16

  
  


Fred took a deep breath in through his nose and stretched. He loved the spent, slightly tingly feeling after a good stretch, even moreso if it was with a face full of sunshine just after waking. He didn't relish the need to get out of bed, as it was lovely and warm under the covers, but as usual, the thought of all they could get up to during the day won out.

George was still asleep when he returned from the shower, so he did his brotherly duty and kicked George's mattress until a pillow flew through the curtains and faffed him in the face.

“Good morning, slugabed!” Fred shouted happily. Nothing quite like tormenting a sibling – it always put a grin on his face.

“I hope an erumpent mistakes you for a female.” George growled in return.

Fred laughed and kicked the mattress again. “At least you know he's horny.”

“Ugh.” George grunted.

Fred dressed himself and grabbed the marvellous map. George heaved himself out of bed and slapped Fred up the back of his head as he headed into the showers, while Fred went to wait for his worse half in the common room. He plonked himself down in his favourite chair and tapped the map with his wand.

“I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” He whispered. As the ink began to spread over the parchment and reveal the castle, the grounds, and all beings within, he flicked his wand at the fireplace to start the fire.

“Let's see what you have for us today, O revealer of secrets.” He muttered gleefully as he put his wand away and picked up the map.

He looked first at the Great Hall, as he usually did. Breakfast was nearly over, so he knew the traffic in the Great Hall wouldn't be thick, but instead he saw there was almost no-one there. Filch was there with Missus Norris, and there were a few Hufflepuffs, as well as a first-year Ravenclaw. He didn't recognize any of them.

“Where is everyone?” He asked the map.

He scanned around, opened up the map further, and finally located a huge knot of people outside right next to the lake.

“Oh right! It's Second Task this morning!” He told the fireplace. “Hang on...” He zoomed in a little bit further, and saw four names _in_ the lake. “What are you doing in the bloody lake at the end of bloody February in bloody Scotland?”

He zoomed in further, and saw a mark next to one of the names that he'd never seen before. He frowned, and zoomed in as far as the map would go. He stared at what the map told him, while the reality of what he looked at slowly dawned on him.

"George! GEORGE!" He shouted as he gazed at the map in horror. He dropped it on the coffee table and pulled his legs into the chair as though to climb away from the thing.

"What? What are you banging on about?" George jogged into the common room, freshly dressed.

Fred just pointed at the map. "We... should see if there's anything we can do. To help." He tried to keep his voice from quivering, really he did.

George gazed at the map where his twin pointed.

"I was just watching things, you know? Watching all the people setting up the event for today. I never thought..." He trailed off with a horrified look at the map. "They're _in_ the lake, George." He whispered.

George frowned and stared down at the map. "Didn't know Diggory had a sibling here at schoo... no, that can't be. Delacour is from Beauxbatons, so they must have brought other people in. Why in Merlin's massive mango would they put people _in_ the lake? It's bloody February! They've got to be nearly frozen solid in water that cold."

"Read the notation under that weird mark." Fred breathed heavily, to get his nerves back under control.

George looked quizzically at his other half before he did as he was bid, and as he did his eyes grew large and his lower lip trembled. "You're right. We should probably go find him and offer anything we can."

"I don't think he'll even find out until it's over, or nearly over. We might just want to leave school while there's still one to leave." Fred stood up from the chair, ready to go pack.

"Your first idea was better. Nobody wants friends who cut and run at the first sign of trouble. That's what Ron would do." George frowned.

Fred sighed, defeated. George was right. "Let's head out there then. They'll be bringing the Champions out before long, we'll see if we can offer assistance as soon as he's done."

"If he's in any state of mind." George frowned. "And if he isn't, then I will take this opportunity to say you're a bastard, and it's been a delight to torture you these past sixteen years." He said, but his heart wasn't in it, and his words were hollow. George expected a grin and a punch, but Fred was numb, just like he was.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Daphne felt a strange, bubbly feeling in her chest as she and Neville made their way into the Slytherin stands. Neville held her hand after they'd stood up from the breakfast table, and hadn't let go since! It was the first time they'd held hands in public, and behind her habitual blank face, she danced with joy. Everything was proceeding wonderfully, in public. In private, she was already far happier than that. Neville had shown her how ardent he was, how she affected him, and she had to admit it was absolutely mutual. At the end of their Valentine's date, once they were alone, he'd pressed her softly against the wall and snogged her gently but forcefully.

It had been the most brilliant thing she'd ever experienced, and she hadn't waited to beg him for more. He'd denied her, of course, she knew he would. It didn't matter how much she wanted it, she was no market trollop and he was no thrillseeking flake. He'd let her know that he was committed to her and that he wanted her properly with both actions. It was a shame it was too early to send Father a betrothal contract. She had no doubt Neville already had one prepared and simply waited for the proper time to send it, as decorum dictated.

She had been so happy that she had sat with Hermione in Charms the next morning, just so they could whisper about their Valentine's dates. That had been an eye-opener, for sure - another one. It seemed that every time they actually got time to talk to each other, Hermione opened her eyes just that much further. She hoped she fell in love with Neville that much one day, and that he loved her the same. She knew she was wishing for the moon and stars, but that didn't change that she wished for it.

She looked around at the thronging stands, all erected around the shores of the Black Lake. She hadn't seen Hermione at breakfast, and Daphne couldn't spot her in any of the stands. Maybe she was with Duncan, giving him last-minute encouragement. Luna caught her eye from the Ravenclaw stands, and waved to her happily. Daphne waved back and risked a brief smile in return. Daphne still couldn't believe everyone dismissed Luna as just some kind of fruity woolgatherer. The evidence to the contrary was right there on her bookbag and proclaimed her a member of the Hogwarts Poetry Club. She brushed her fingers across her own silver and sapphire patch and smiled at Luna again, who smiled back knowingly.

Several platforms floated near one edge of the lake, connected to the shore and each other by walkways. It was on the center platform, larger than the rest, that she finally saw Duncan. Hermione was not with him. It wasn't like her to be anywhere but with him. Maybe she stayed behind to do some research? Maybe she didn't want to watch the surface of the lake for an hour? Honestly, whoever came up with these events was a genuine cretin.

"I see Duncan but not Hermione." She whispered to Neville. "Did she mention that she wasn't coming to you?"

"No," He replied, "She didn't mention anything. I'd expected her to be there with Duncan."

Daphne tried to smile for him, despite the cold that settled into her stomach. "I suppose we'll have to pay attention then so we can share it with her later."

"Sound plan." Neville smiled back at her, and patted her hand that he already held with his other hand. She'd have preferred a kiss, but one had to remain proper in public.

Ludo Bagman's voice rang out over the lake and the stands then. "When I blow the whistle, your Champions will have one hour to find and retrieve what's been taken from them, and return here to the start! Are you ready Champions!?"

There were no replies, just chattering teeth.

Bagman blew the whistle anyway, and the four shivering Champions dove into the freezing lake.

"I hope he'll be alright down there, it's bloody freezing.' Neville muttered. "Whoever came up with these tasks needs to go shovel dragonshit for a living."

"Agreed." She whispered back. "First for pointless endangerment of the Champions, and second for no thought spared to the audience. Did they hope for a big turnout to sit and literally watch the surface of a lake for an hour?"

Neville chuckled. "That too. If I didn't know the Champions personally I certainly wouldn't be here." He leaned closer and whispered to her, "I'd be trying to get you into a broom closet somewhere."

Suddenly Scottish February wasn't so cold.

She could feel heat creep into her cheeks no matter how she tried to stop it. The thought of being alone with him, of him _making her_ do things... She rubbed her thighs together involuntarily as she leaned over and whispered back "You don't have to _try_."

Neville's confident grin melted as his eyes widened and his cheeks flushed as well. His expression settled on stunned joy.

Some time later, after they had both cooled down again, Daphne noticed something odd in the Gryffindor stands.

"Nev, have you ever seen the twins look like that before?"

Neville frowned and looked where she indicated. Fred's and George's faces were both the same shade of ghastly grey-green. They looked like they sat in anticipation of a Wizengamot sentence for excessive pranking. There was not a hint of laughter in anything about them.

"No, not ever." Neville looked back at her, and there was fear in his eyes. "Something is very wrong." His grip on her hand became tighter, without slack.

The minutes thereafter stretched by like taffy as they both scanned the surface of the lake for any sign of activity.

After what seemed like days, there was a splash near the main platform as Viktor emerged from the water with a soaked and freezing Katie Bell.

"I knew it, I bloody knew it!" Neville hissed under his breath. "It's not _what_ 's been taken, but _who_."

"That would mean Hermione -" She whispered back to him. _Oh no_.

"Exactly." His jaw set in a grim determination.

Fleur was next into the air as she swam and carried what looked like a smaller, younger version of herself. Katie Bell helped the smaller girl up onto the platform while Viktor helped Fleur up, and both were wrapped in towels and blankets immediately by Madam Pomfrey.

Cedric surfaced then, a bare moment after Fleur. Cedric towed an older looking man who looked around, confused.

"Cedric's father, Amos." Neville whispered to her. "Gran knows him from the Wizengamot."

"Where's Duncan?" She whispered back. She felt the coldness from before creep upward from her stomach toward her throat. "Shouldn't he have been first?"

Neville spared a glance for her as he rubbed her back comfortingly.

"Please let them be okay." She whispered very quietly.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Neville's nerves stretched tight, like sinew that dried so tight on tenterhooks that it hummed in the breeze. Daphne was concerned for her new friends, but she didn't even know half the truth. If something had happened to Harry...

He got to his feet and pulled Daphne with him. He had to get down there, he had to know. The entire Wizarding world depended on it, whether it knew that fact or not. Daphne never once let go of his hand, even while he gripped hers tighter than he should. They threaded the path down from the stands to the edge of the lake in a hurry, without really seeing anything around them. They tried to use the walkway to get to the main platform, but two Aurors barred them entry. He had to content himself with being as near to it as he could from the shore.

He paced back and forth along the water's edge as Daphne tried to soothe him, but the knot of worry in his chest wouldn't allow it. Finally, a splash signaled Harry's arrival.

Unlike the others, Hermione didn't awaken once she was out of the water. Harry didn't notice either, as he was intent on swimming to the platform with her extra weight. Cedric and Fleur each took one of Hermione's arms and pulled her onto the platform, then returned to help Harry.

The smaller version of Fleur draped a blanket over Hermione, and then screamed.

Everyone turned to look at her except Harry, who took one glance, and then knelt at Hermione's side.

"...No, no no no no..." Harry's voice quavered as it spewed its litany. He took his wand out and flicked it at Hermione, and Neville could see a gout of water burst out of Hermione's nose and mouth.

She didn't move.

"Hermione!" Harry shouted at her.

Madam Pomfrey was at her side in an instant, and wove complicated diagnostics with her wand. She flicked her wand at Hermione, and a tiny burst of lightning played over her body. Hermione jerked, and then was still. Madam Pomfrey repeated the spell, but Hermione refused to move. She lay like a lump of stone between Harry and Pomfrey.

After a third failed attempt at the lightning spell, Pomfrey directed Harry to pull Hermione upright, then poured a vial of something down her throat. Harry stroked Hermione's hair and called her name in a constant stream.

"Hermione! Hermione! Wake up! Hermione! Come back to me! Hermione! I need you!" He chanted, over and over and over.

Madam Pomfrey tried the lightning again, another three times, with no effect. Neville could see tears stream down her cheeks as she leaned over and whispered to Harry.

Harry screamed at her in return. "NO! DO SOMETHING! THAT'S A LIE! FIX IT!"

She said something else to Harry that Neville couldn't hear, but Harry screamed "NO!" and buried his face in Hermione's chest as he crushed her to him. He rocked back and forth and repeated "No. No. No. No. No."

Neville looked at Daphne, and her face mirrored his own terrified despair. It had finally registered in her mind, as it had in his, the truth of what they had just witnessed.

Hermione Potter was dead.

  
  


* * *

  
  


**Dear Mr. and Mrs. Granger,**

**I am writing on behalf of the Faculty and Staff of Hogwarts School of Magic. It is with our deepest regret that I must inform you of your daughter's untimely death this February twenty-fourth.**

**Hermione was our top student in every class that she took, and our top student overall, and it saddens me greatly that we have lost such a bright and promising witch.**

**Arrangements for returning her body to you are under way, pending the official investigation into her death though I should not expect this to take more than a few days. Our thoughts are with you in this most unfortunate time.**

**With deepest condolence,**

**Professor Minerva J. McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress.**

Evelyn dropped the letter from nerveless fingers.

Hermione was dead. Her baby. Her little girl.

Her no-longer-little young woman, happy and excited to share her feelings about her first boy.

The owl that had brought the letter gained height as it flapped northward in a straight line from the kitchen window. She watched it slowly disappear into the distance with the feeling that the laws of nature no longer functioned properly. Tiny shards of her interactions with her daughter stabbed into her mind.

Hermione's beautiful little tear-stained face as she came to her with arms out when nobody had come to her sixth birthday party. What had she done when confronted with that? "Now you know you can only rely on yourself." She'd patted her little head, her wild hair compressed and sprung back into place like a sponge. Hermione had stopped trying after that and started to disappear into books.

More tears when the children at school began to bully her for reading too much. What had she done? Boxing lessons for a seven year old.

Unexpected smiles this past Christmas when she'd shown up trailing that handsome young man. What had she done? "Boys only want one thing, Hermione. They will use you and discard you and you're far better off without them. Focus on your studies, it will serve you far better in the long run. Get rid of him."

She realized now that was almost verbatim what her mother had told her when she'd asked about her father. Hadn't she hated how paranoid and pinched her mother had been when she was young? Hadn't she vowed to get away from her and never return? How long had it been since she'd spoken to mother? Without meaning to, Evelyn had become her. She'd become the very thing she'd hated and vowed to repudiate.

Then she'd done the same thing to her own baby.

As the scenes of Hermione's life played before her, she saw that her baby had only wanted to know that her mother cared. She hadn't wanted a solution to the problem. It wasn't a puzzle to be completed, not an equation to be solved.

She'd treated her daughter as an annoyance. An intrusion into the peace and quiet of her own studying.

And now she was dead.

She'd never gone bra shopping with her. Never asked her about her studies. She had no idea what her interests were. She had no idea what her favourite colour was. She'd given birth to the most precious thing in the world and treated her like a stranger. Had _turned her into_ a stranger. Now she'd never see her again, not for Christmas, not for birthdays, not ever. She'd never see her baby work magic.

The full weight of what she'd done to her child and the consequences she'd wrought slammed home in her mind as gravity seemed to twist in on itself. For the first time, she recognized the emptiness she called peace and quiet. The unfathomable horror of how she had neglected her child stared into her mind from behind her eyes. For the first time since she was a teen, Evelyn Granger burst into uncontrollable sobs.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Rita rubbed her hands together gleefully as she finished sealing the frame and flipped the newly-minted front page over. Another huge scandal brought to the Wizarding world by Rita Culicida Skeeter, and this one at some personal expense. Cameras were not cheap. It had been a miracle that Bozo was able to salvage the film out of the mess the MacFusty brat had turned his camera into, but salvage it he had. She had turned it into another full front-page spread and strangled another few galleons a week out of Cuffe with it.

She loved a good tragedy, it was like free gold.

She hung the framed front page of her latest triumph on the wall next to the others and made sure it was straight. A message slipped in under the office door before she was finished.

"Miss Skeeter, there's a girl here to see you." It said, and hung there in midair while it waited for her reply.

"What does she want?" She asked tersely. Why couldn't they just get all the damn information and _then_ talk to her? How hard was that?

"She says she has information that you'll want."

Oh if only she had a galleon for every time she heard that... "Fine. Tell her to wait, I'll get there when I get there."

"Yes, Miss Skeeter."

Rita sat back in her chair and warmed herself a cup of tea.

Halfway through her cup of tea, her paranoia got the better of her and asked 'what if she does have something juicy and goes to someone else with it?' Consequently, Rita found herself in the lobby several minutes before she meant to be.

The only girl in the lobby was a willowy young woman, with long, straight, platinum-blonde hair and icy grey eyes.

"Good afternoon, miss...?" Rita addressed her.

"No names." The girl replied.

"Well, if you aren't willing to be a credible source..." Rita began to turn away.

"You want what I know, and I can prove it with one sentence." The girl said firmly. She wasn't anxious or frightened, which probably meant she had other buyers lined up already. Besides, Rita's instincts screamed at her to at least listen. She didn't have anything else pressing, not after the Tragedy At Black Lake.

"Alright, I'll bite." Rita said condescendingly - wouldn't do to have a source get too confident, after all. "What's your sentence?"

The girl looked from Rita to Penelope, the new lobby girl, and back again. Then she stepped up to Rita and whispered in her ear, close enough to feel her silky hair on her neck.

"Albus Dumbledore killed Harry Potter." She whispered.

Trollshit! Her mind shouted immediately. She opened her mouth to dismiss the girl, but stopped.

What if it wasn't?

"Can you prove it?" She whispered back excitedly. If it wasn't trollshit, it would rock the entire Wizarding world like nothing before.

"No." The girl said, "But you can. I portkey to the continent tomorrow morning, and I'm not saying where."

Leaving the country? If she fled the country in fear for her own life that would make the story seem like it were true even if it wasn't. The wheels in her mind began to spin. She needed more.

"Come to my office." She told the girl, and spun on her heel. She had to force herself not to run.

She closed the door behind them, then locked, sealed and silenced it. She activated her secret dictaquill in her bottom drawer, and set up her quick-quotes quill on parchment on top of her desk.

"Start at the beginning," She instructed the girl, "It doesn't matter how long it takes, don't spare any detail. I'll need everything you know."

"Alright. I'm not telling you what I did to get detention, because that could be used to trace my name, and it isn't relevant. The fact that I got detention is, though. As my punishment, I was made to hand-clean Dumbledore's office with a rag every day for an entire month. As you can imagine, that takes a fair amount of time. One day I was cleaning as normal, and hit a secret rune under the lip of the desk. Imagine my surprise when a pensieve and a cabinet full of memories came out of one of the walls."

"Dumbledore has a pensieve in his office?" Rita asked before she could stop herself. If he did, it would connect a few dots she remembered from her own time at Hogwarts.

The girl nodded. "I've experienced Dumbledore's own memories. That's how I know what I'm about to tell you."

"I see. Please continue." She smiled. Dumbledore's own memories! Thank you Merlin! this would mean more money than she knew what to do with.

"Harry Potter's story doesn't begin with Harry Potter. It begins with his parents, James and Lily Potter." The girl went on to spin a horrifying tale of deliberate information leaks, prophecy, Death Eaters - Snape! She knew it! - and Dumbledore playing everyone and the whole situation like a harp. When the girl paused, Rita stepped in with some questions to clarify.

"So Dumbledore was a witness to James and Lily's Will?"

"Yes. If you go to the Ministry to view it - it's a matter of public record after all, you'll find that it was sealed by the Chief Warlock." The girl explained.

"One Albus Dumbledore." Rita finished. "What does Sirius Black's unlawful incarceration have to do with it?"

"Sirius Black was James Potter's best friend and Harry's Godfather. Dumbledore kept him in prison without a trial on purpose because Sirius would have stopped at nothing to get custody of Harry." She filled in.

"Which Dumbledore couldn't have if he was to give Harry to his muggle Aunt." Morgana's minge, it was all making sense!

"It was the muggle Aunt's husband who actually killed Harry just trying to make the baby shut up. The fat muggle slapped baby Harry around and threw him in a cupboard. The muggle authorities found baby Harry's blood in the cupboard, but no baby body. They arrested the fat muggle and he went to prison."

"Wait, wait, how do you know any of that?" Rita interrupted. She couldn't possibly know any of that, Dumbledore couldn't be everywhere at once.

"Same way I know the rest of it. Dumbledore went to the muggle prison and Legilimensed the stupid fat muggle. He keeps the muggle's memories in a separate vial, as though it would contaminate everything else."

Now _that_ sounded like something Dumbledore would do.

"I saw the muggle's memories." The girl said. "He was looking right at baby Harry when baby Harry Disapparated."

What?

"Wait, so baby Harry Potter _Disapparated_? Where did he go then? How did he die?" Rita couldn't stop the excited trembling of her fingers.

"I don't know. It's possible that Harry Potter is in fact dead, because that's the last anyone ever saw of him. I don't think he is though. I think he's still out there somewhere. Why else would Albus Dumbledore get his hands dirty and use a Killing Curse on a muggle if not to keep that information quiet? What Dumbledore wants more than anything is to control Harry Potter, after all."

"Dumbledore used a Killing Curse?!" Rita near-shrieked. _That_ was an entire special issue all to itself.

The girl nodded. "He did. He made sure he was alone first of course, so you'll never be able to prove that part."

Shit. Well, there was still more than enough to work with.

"I think that girl's death under the lake had something to do with it." The girl said after a moment.

"What? Why? What could some muggle-born dying have to do with Harry bloody Potter?"

"That's what I asked myself, but it was Dumbledore who gave the idea for reviving the tournament to Bagman. Bagman took all the credit of course, but I think Dumbledore chose him for that reason. Also... Harry Potter, if he had lived, would be about the age when boys discover girls."

Rita felt her jaw slacken and fall open. She was _right_! The whole thing fit together snugly like a puzzle that led to only one conclusion - Harry Potter was alive and at Hogwarts. The fact that Dumbledore ignored every other student's safety pointed to that clearly enough. Could Dumbledore have engineered the girl's death _because_ she was involved with Potter?

She had a lot of legwork to do. Facts needed to be corroborated. Usually she wouldn't bother, she'd just let public opinion do the work for her, but this... This was the end of Dumbledore. If she bolloxed it up, she was the one who would be finished. She could start at the Ministry. If the girl was right, the Will would still be sealed.

"So either Harry Potter is dead because of Albus Dumbledore, or Harry Potter isn't dead and is at Hogwarts and other students are dying because of it." Rita summed up. The story would be a nightmare of work ahead of her, but if she managed it...

"That's the size of it. Do you have everything you need, Miss Skeeter? Once I leave the building, I'm going to stay gone."

"Thank you, give me a moment to review." She picked up her parchment, now several feet long, and scanned through it. The act of reading through it spoke of Dumbledore's obsession with Voldemort and the prophecy that concerned him and Harry Potter. It spoke of Dumbledore's absolutely callous disregard for the lives of people around him, lives he manipulated and ended when it suited him.

What she held wasn't an article, she realized. It was a book. A big, fat book with neverending royalties.

"Just one more question." Rita turned back to the girl. "What do you get out of this? Why give this to me?"

"That's the easiest question of all. I'm getting the twenty galleons you're going to give me, which I'm going to use to get a portkey out of the country, and I'm getting revenge on a petty tyrant who thinks people are nothing but his personal playthings."

"I'm not going to give you -"

"Or I'll burn that transcript right now." The girl inexplicably had a wand in her hand, just like that.

She debated letting her burn it, she would have the actual transcript from the dictaquill in the bottom drawer. She could make do with that... No, sometimes the quick-quotes wrote things in a way that she hadn't seen it, and turned out to be gold more often than not. Twenty wasn't a ridiculous price, really. She'd never paid an informant even half that before, but if this turned out to be true...

"Fine." She fished twenty galleons from her secret stash in the hidden drawer and handed them to the girl. She would have to find a new place for her secret stash.

The girl ran her wand over them and removed the tracking charms she kept on them. Damn her!

The girl took in Rita's expression and snorted in a most unladylike way. "Really, Skeeter. I've been playing the good girl and dodging Dumbledore for months. You're far less sneaky and far less dangerous than he is. Have a nice life, I hope you utterly ruin that bastard."

With that, the girl undid the magic on her door and left.

She would need to take a leave of absence. If Cuffe caught even a faint whiff of what she was doing, then he would demand to be included, demand that the Prophet break the story. That was never going to happen. She would fight him over it and then quit if he refused to relent. She would rather not burn any bridges she didn't have to, so a leave of absence was the best option. Rita had enough money stashed away in various places to live comfortably for a number of years, so she wasn't so concerned with the lack of salary.

She would need to contact people who knew Dumbledore personally too. That should be the first order of business, who knew when they might die of old age.

She took a deep, bracing breath as she packed the all-important transcripts in her bag, closed up her office, and went to Cuffe's office to give him the bad news.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Wolly reminded himself to stand up straight and not fidget. It was very impolite to go to another elf's private place without an invitation, but it was what Mister Harry had asked him to do. Wolly decided to compromise - that was a new word he'd learned just this week - and stand politely far away, but close enough that he could still talk to her.

She sat against the far wall and hugged her knees while her head rested on them. She looked terribly thin and frail. Wolly reminded himself that he brought her good news, and wondered what she might look like after she bonded with Mister and Missus.

He cleared his throat to let her know he was there. She gasped and stood instantly, her head swivelled to look every direction as her hands stayed in front of her as if to deflect blows.

Her eyes locked onto him, and widened just before she dropped to her knees with her head on the floor.

He understood. He'd had much the same reaction when he met Lammy the first time.

"Miss Alis? Please get up. My name is Wolly, I would like to talk to you if you're alright with that."

"Wolly?" She looked up from her prostrate position. "That bes House Elf name. You bes House Elf?"

Wolly smiled. "I am."

"Wolly doesn't looks like House Elf. Doesn't talks like House Elf." Alis noted. She raised herself up to her knees and looked at him properly.

"Bonding to my new family changed me a little, that's all. I used to be just like you, except I had a good family before the bad wizard killed them."

"Lucky." Alis said.

"You will be too." Wolly smiled again. "The time is coming when your master will be dead."

Her face broke into a brief expression of joy before she slammed her head into the floor.

"No! Bad Alis! Not for wishing master bes dead! Bad!" She slammed her head into the floor several times before she stopped and sat back to look at him again. "Why Wolly bes here? Why talks to bad Alis?"

"My Mister asked me to come talk to you, to see if maybe you know of other House Elves who are treated badly like you are. My Mister wants to free all the House Elves who serve bad witches and wizards so they can bond to good witches and wizards who don't hurt Elves."

Large tears formed in the corners of her eyes and fell with audible splats on the stone floor.

"For true? Alis can bond to different family?"

Wolly nodded. "My Mister promised to bond you himself if you don't find a family who wants you. A good family is what waits for you."

Alis fell from her knees to her behind and sobbed as hope bubbled up inside her, but then she started to punch herself in the head. "Alis don't deserves goodness! Alis takes Mistress to bin tip and leaves her to die! Alis is bad! Always bad!"

He wanted so badly to tell her that her Mistress was safe and far away, but he couldn't. He knew that Alis would have to tell her Master if he ordered it. He would have to wait to tell her until she was free. He'd even left his medal behind on purpose for just that reason. He did the right thing and bit his lips even though it hurt his insides to not tell her.

"Alis knows others." She said when she finished punching herself. "All serve bad witches and wizards. Master takes Alis to clean when mistress bes tiny, and Alis meets all the sad Elves like Alis."

"Do you remember their names?" Wolly asked hopefully. That would be perfect, if he only had to talk to Alis. His heart was heavy and unhappy just being here to talk to her. He didn't want to have to talk to any more.

Alis nodded. "Some. Alis only meets some once and doesn't remembers them." She frowned and squinched up her chin as she thought, "Alis mostly just remembers Dobby. Master always wants Mistress to make babies with young Master of Dobby. Oh! Also Gromp. Master wants Mistress to make babies with Gromp's young Master if Dobby's Master says no." She punched herself some more. "No babies for Mistress now, Alis does bad!"

"No, Alis. You would not harm your Mistress. Your Master _made_ you do it. Your Master is bad, not you. Alis must obey."

Alis stopped punching herself and looked at him with big, understanding eyes that dribbled tears. She sniffed and nodded. "Alis must obeys."

"Do you remember the names of the families Gromp and Dobby belong to?" Wolly asked.

Alis nodded. "Master goes ons and ons about getting Nott's monies or Malfoy's monies. Always plotsing for other family monies and powers."

"Thank you, Alis. I think you are a good Elf with a very bad Master. I will come visit you again if you want."

Alis's eyes grew wider. "Wolly's Master bes okay with Wolly gone somewheres else?"

Wolly nodded. "Mister wants us to have friends."

Alis frowned. "What is friends?"

"Friends are others that we like to spend time with."

"Alis never hears that before." She shook her head so that her ears flapped.

"It's okay, you'll hear it again later. I have to go talk to Gromp and Dobby now, but I have to ask one more question. You don't have to answer if your Master made you not speak of it, I don't want to get you in trouble."

"Alis answers if okay." She dried her eyes with the backs of her hands.

"The one your Master calls Dark Lord - did he give anything to your Master to keep safe?"

Alis shook her head and sent her ears flapping again. "Alis hears Master complain about that long times. Master always hates Malfoy and LeStrange for bes favourites. Master says Malfoy and LeStrange bad choices. Weak. Stupid. Master's Dark Master should chooses Master instead."

Wolly couldn't believe his luck. He had names to give Mister Harry! He grinned at Alis and made a mental note to make certain that Alis was freed from her terrible family as soon as possible.

He bowed to her. "Thank you again, Alis. I will come see you again if you want, just call me."

She nodded. "Alis likes talks. Alis bes alone for long times. Wolly is sure is okay if Alis calls? Alis not wants trouble for Wolly with Mister."

Wolly smiled. "Mister would think it's great if Alis calls. He would be happy if I came to talk to you."

"Wolly's Mister bes _happy_ for talks? Not loud for shirkings?" Her eyebrows rose along with her pitch.

Wolly smiled back at her. "You'll see, sometime soon I hope. Talk to you later, Alis."

She nodded and smiled a little smile. "Talks to you later, Wolly."

  
  


* * *

  
  


She heard and _felt_ people arrive. How, she didn't know. She would have to ask Hermio-

No. She couldn't do that anymore.

The fact that anyone had arrived at all was unexpected, she had thought it would just be the two of them through the ceremony - that's why they hadn't minded that the church was so tiny.

At first it was just the one arrival, followed after a moment by another, then another, then a flood of them all at once. Horatio didn't look up. His expressionless face remained as though carved from stone as he stared straight ahead at her coffin, and she wondered how he could not notice the loud bangs some of them produced when they appeared.

Within the space of a few minutes the pews were full and people had lined the walls and aisle. _Who were all these people_?

Last to arrive, nearly whisper quiet but directly next to her were two beautiful blonde girls and a tall chubby-cheeked teen boy. He and the shorter blonde supported the tall handsome lad who had come to their house at Christmas with Hermione. He barely seemed to register where he was at all. His helpers vacated a seat just the other side of the aisle from Evelyn and gently sat him into it. He made no movement on his own, he did nothing but breathe and stare straight ahead. He seemed a pale ghost of the passionate young man he'd been only months before.

The taller blonde stood on his far side next to the chubby-cheeked young man and held his hand, while the shorter blonde stood in the aisle with her hand on... Donald? David? Dudley? The ghost-boy's shoulder.

"Excuse me, miss? Who are -" She began, but stopped when the girl turned red-rimmed eyes of cold fire on her and glared into her soul.

"Hermione was my _best friend_." She hissed, low and dangerous. "I only met her this year, and _I_ loved her more than you _ever did._ I have _nothing_ to say to you."

Spikes of guilt tore open her chest and made it hard to breathe. She'd thought she'd finished her crying over her daughter, but pain radiated from her heart through her whole torso and sent stinging water to her eyes.

"Who the devil are you speaking to, Evelyn?" Horatio looked at her from under furrowed brows.

He couldn't see them, she realized. Or hear them. To him, they were still alone in the church with their dead daughter. They were using _magic_ right then and there, all around them.

So why did she see them?

The reverend stepped to the podium then, and her questions were pushed to the back of her mind, though she did note that the reverend couldn't see or hear them either.

The service was short and to the point. Evelyn had no belief, and even if she had it would have evaporated in the storm of grief that followed reading that letter. It shamed every ounce of her that her grief was partly for herself and not wholly for the stranger she had made of her beautiful little girl.

Horatio had no belief either, but his parents were devout catholics. It was how he had been raised. It had seemed somewhat charming to her in the beginning that he followed his parents' beliefs, but as he sat and listened to the reverend spout soothing gibberish, she could see in his eyes that he hated it. He felt a fraud, the same as she did. She saw then that he was only there because he didn't know what else to do.

The shame and emptiness inside her welled up again and flowed a constant stream of silent tears down her face. Never took her to the beach. Never baked a cake together. Never bothered to ask what she studied. Would never see her smile. Would never see her wedding dress. Would never have a grandchild.

She'd had everything. _Everything_. And she'd ignored it. Patted herself on the back for doing such a good job while she flushed every ounce of possibility down the bog.

The absolute loss consumed her as Horatio just set his jaw and stared ahead at the reverend, who never missed a beat.

Evelyn didn't hear even half what the reverend said. The service was over in moments it seemed, and Horatio helped her up from her seat. Hermione's friends graciously waited for them to leave, and she felt their presences depart as her husband led her to the car. They were gone by the time he closed the door for her. They had a pressure to them that she hadn't noticed, but when they were gone she felt empty again, open to the sky.

Cold.

Alone.

Horatio drove them home again, helped her from the car, and reheated leftovers for dinner.

"Eat, Evelyn. You need to keep up your strength." He told her when he saw that she wasn't eating.

Why though? What was the point?

  
  


* * *

  
  


Corban took one look at McNair and thanked Merlin he hadn't been called upon to be his Lord's nursemaid. The grotesque little mockery glared hatefully at him as he knelt in front of the threadbare and moth-eaten chair and wheezed a command like the words were in its chest and it had to force them out.

"Report."

"My Lord," Corban acknowledged, "We cannot capture the girl. Dumbledore has killed her. The spy suspects that Dumbledore means to tell the boy at the appropriate time that we are responsible for her death and set him loose upon us. The spy suspects he means for us to kill the boy so that Dumbledore can then kill us - you specifically, My Lord, but we would soon follow."

The twisted baby's visage wheezed in a monstrous parody of mirth.

"The old fool is still trying to win!" It chuckled mockingly. "Severus is quite correct, he means to goad the boy to blind rage so that I may kill him and the fool may kill me. Very well."

"Very well, My Lord?" Corban asked. After cheating death he was alright with Dumbledore killing him?

"Yes, Corban. We will give Dumbledore the audience he so obviously seeks. You will go to each and every one of my Death Eaters. I want all of them present for my resurrection. You will provide me the boy. I require his blood. You will alter the Triwizard cup to fetch me the boy and the old fool. Drop them in the cemetery outside, Walden will have the ritual prepared. I want the rest of them invisible and hidden, they are to incapacitate the old fool. Nothing more! If I am denied Dumbledore's life I shall be most displeased. No-one is to harm the boy. He may be stunned, but he belongs to me. Am I clear?"

"Perfectly clear, My Lord." He replied. He had no idea how he was going to make that happen just yet, but it was also clear he had better figure it out.

"I expect to hear of your progress in your next report." It was not a question. It wasn't even a statement. It was a threat, one he understood all too well.

"Of course, My Lord." He bowed his head.

"You have your orders."

That was dismissal. Corban remained with his head bowed low as he backed away and turned to go. McNair stared after him, his eyes silently begging for aid.

He pitied the poor bastard, but they all had their parts to play. He knew McNair loved to kill things with his stupidly oversized axe - so much that he'd made it his job at the Ministry to do so. He would have plenty of that when the Dark Lord rose again, so he should be doing everything he could to make sure that happened, not griping about his lot. Miserable sod.

Corban had his own problems anyway. The Dark Lord hadn't demanded all the _free_ Death Eaters, he'd demanded _all_ the Death Eaters. That meant he had a mass breakout of Azkaban to engineer. That meant money, _Imperius_ curses, and Obliviations. That took time and energy. Then when they were free he had to herd all those half-mad kneazles to where and when the Dark Lord wanted them. He could already feel the headaches that would generate.

Corban sighed as he exited the dilapidated manor house and stalked to the Apparition point where he returned home.

He had plans to make.

  
  



	17. Chapter 17

  
  


It happened as he delivered the climax of his argument. It was just a glimmer, a flash so brief it could scarcely be felt. Lucius was a consummate professional however, and ignored it in favor of completing his address to the Assembly. It had felt like the Manor Wards, but the lack of any real alarm within them told him it had probably just been one of the incompetent Elves. He made a mental note to investigate later.

Lucius inclined his head regally at the Assembly as they applauded. Another flawless delivery, another victory for the Dark Lord, and all it took was making it seem like the proposed law would preserve the Pureblood way of life.

Ignorant old fools. As soon as the Dark Lord rose again their precious preservation, their ridiculously biased laws, their own positions of power - all would be swept aside. The Dark Lord would rule as the King of Britain, and he, Lucius Pellecien Malfoy, would be Duke of Birmingham and rule the second largest area in Britain. He would still bow to the Dark Lord of course, but when his attention was elsewhere, Lucius would be free to reign and do as he pleased.

He gave one last dignified nod to the Assembly and resumed his seat. At least he could report success to his Lord that afternoon. He wasn't looking forward to the meeting, but he'd been summoned, so it was inevitable. His Lord had plans, and Lucius knew what was good for him. Even though the Dark Lord was still a disgusting Homonculus being cared for by that simpleton McNair, the time when that would change rapidly approached. The Resurrection Ritual would grant him a new body and restore him to power, and Lucius planned to watch while the Dark Lord punished those who were not so loyal. It was an infinitely better choice than to be one of the punished.

He voted down Ossul's ridiculous proposal to create a standing army, and voted for the motion to make it illegal for a group of people to wear masks in public - just to keep the plebs guessing. It was clearly aimed at allowing Aurors to arrest anyone caught dressed as a Death Eater, so in that respect it was against his best interest to vote so, but ultimately it didn't matter. It was all irrelevant anyway. Before the year was out most of the wizards and witches in the Assembly would be dead or fled, and all the laws would be whatever the Dark Lord decided they were in the moment.

He left the council chambers after the meeting, both dreading the tete-a-tete with the Dark Lord and excited to report his successes. He changed into his less opulent robes before he left, as he knew he would be writhing on the grubby floor of his Lord's shabby abode. His meeting with the Dark Lord went as he expected, with the exception that he was instructed to give Yaxley any assistance he required. He agreed immediately of course, and was treated to a Cruciatus curse that was less intense and less lengthy than he had anticipated. All in all, it had been a good day. He left the Dark Lord's chosen abode - filthy and decrepit as it was - with a spring in his step.

He retired to his drawing room when he returned home and quaffed a Cruciatus Recovery potion from his private reserve. He felt nearly normal by the time dinner was ready.

"I want to thank you... for this afternoon." Narcissa said during the soup course. "It's been some time since you were so ardent."

He was not aware she'd been in the Assembly during his speech, but it wasn't an uncommon occurrence. She had her own part to play in the Dark Lord's rise, after all.

"I was somewhat impassioned, wasn't I?" He said. It wasn't a question, it was a preening demand for greater praise.

"Very much so." She replied. "I look forward to the next time you feel so... strongly."

"The Dark Lord has commanded me to render aid to Yaxley's endeavours, so I fear it may be some time." He said. There wouldn't be another session of the Wizengamot until mid-May in any case.

"Excellent." She smiled. "And a pity."

"Now is the time for patience more than any other, Cissa. The rise will be soon. After that there shall be time enough for other pursuits."

"As you say, my husband."

My husband? She hadn't called him that since before Draco was born. She must have really liked his speech. Well, he had all the time in the world to pontificate once he was Duke of Birmingham. If she played her part well, perhaps he'd write a speech just for her and have it performed by some of the muggle slaves.

"Indeed." He said after a moment. So far she had performed her duties admirably as a wife and Lady, he was gratified to see she had no intention of changing that.

There really was no substitute for a proper family life.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Krolly wasn't as sneaky as Zolly - nobody was - but he was plenty sneaky enough. Not a single one of the sad elves in the huge lonely castle had noticed him even a little as he poked his nose here and there. Just like Wolly and Brolly, he wrote down all the things he found, he took pictures too, since there weren't any wizards or witches in the castle to do any talking. Besides, Mister liked pictures. The sad elves only talked to each other once the day's duties were done and they retreated to their tiny shared space in the north tower.

He had found plenty of things the wizards and witches didn't want found. He was fairly certain he'd found all of their secret spots, as a matter of fact. He'd been through the entire castle, from the invisible room at the top of the East tower to the underwater passages that led out and away down the road. Unfortunately, none of them had the bad magic that Lammy had shown them. His skin still crawled when he remembered the feel of it. Thankfully Lammy had only shown them the pretty witch hat for a few seconds before she closed the box it was kept in.

He found loads and _loads_ of bad magics, magics to hurt, magic to steal, magic to kill unmagicals, magic to hurt other magics, and all kinds of items the bad magics were forced into, but none of them were the same creepy-crawly _looking at you_ magics that Lammy had shown them. It had taken him almost a week to complete his search, but he had to return and tell his family he had failed. He didn't look forward to that.

He made sure his notes and camera and everything were tucked safely in his legpouches, and appeared behind Iggi. Only one thing left to do.

"Hi." He said to Iggi.

Iggi jumped and spun in the air while she squealed. When she landed she fell to her knees with her face on the floor.

That part he understood, he'd done the same thing the first time he met Lammy.

"You can get up Iggi, I'm just a House Elf like you. My name's Krolly."

"House Elf?" Iggi looked up from the floor. "Youse House Elf? For trues?"

Krolly nodded. "I wanted to talk to you if that's okay? You can still do your work while we talk, I wouldn't want to get you in trouble."

Iggi went back to polishing and oiling the weapons on the wall. "Iggi likes talks. Nobody to talks here but family elveses. What one like youse wants with weak Iggi?"

"I came on a mission from my Mister, but I can't do what he asked, so now I have to go tell him I failed."

"Iggi is sorry for Krolly gets punishings."

"That's possible, but Mister will probably just thank me for my effort."

"Mister bes _thankings_ for fail?" Iggi's eyes went wide in disbelief.

Krolly nodded. "Mister is a good wizard. I'm very lucky. Where is everyone?"

"Is only elveses now. Mistress and Master and other Master goesed to the Bad Place. Other wizards and witches putsed them there. Iggi can't even goes when they calls! Flying blacknesses keeps Iggi out. No more magics for cleaning or popping. Only old old castle keeps Iggi and Figgi and Miggi from deads."

"Oh. Sorry, Iggi. Do you wish your Master and Mistress and other Master were here?"

Iggi's forehead scrunched backward as her eyes bulged and she made strangled noises. "Krolly bes head-crazys! Mistress and other Master hurts elveses just for funs! No magics is bad, but Master and Mistress and other Master bes here lots worse!"

She looked around then, her eyes darted left and right as she suddenly realized she'd said something negative about her owners.

"Relax, Iggi. I won't tell anyone. My brother Wolly is out talking to other elves like you from other bad families as well. If your Master and Mistress and other Master died, would you want to bond to a better family?"

She frowned then. "What means 'better'?"

"Well... like my family. Mister wants me to be happy. He even makes up special things just for us to do. When we do good things, Mister shows that he is thankful. My brother Wolly got a medal for good service."

"What is medal?" Iggy asked, curious.

Krolly conjured a temporary copy of Wolly's medal and pinned it to his shirt. "Medal. Special thanks, so everyone knows Mister is proud of our service."

Iggi's eyes grew larger and glassed over as she looked at the medal. "So shiny...Iggi never dreamed Familys had _medals_."

"So you would be happy to go to a good family?"

She looked at the ground for a moment, then looked around to make sure they were alone before she gave him a quick nod.

"Good." Krolly grinned. "It's too bad I couldn't find a safe place to put precious things like Mister wanted. It was nice talking to you, Iggi."

"Mistress always keeps precious things with goblinses. Mistress says no safer place than Gringott's."

"Really? Thanks, Iggi. Maybe I didn't fail after all." He smiled. "Okay then. I will come see you later, when Mister knows a good family for all three of you."

She nodded. "Iggy bes cleaning then. Thanks for talks, Krolly."

"Thank you, Iggi. See you later." Krolly hated to manipulate the poor elf like that, but he understood what was at stake. With a smile and a wave, he silently took his leave.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Neville blew on the ink to dry the final version of his essay on the positive and negative effects of a waxing versus waning moon on the growth of magical plants. It had only been assigned yesterday, but now that he was finished he was free to push ahead in his O.W.L. work. It's what Harry and Her - He caught himself as even the thought made his stomach go cold. Was it what Harry would do anymore? He honestly didn't know. He hadn't seen his little brother in weeks.

He heard a group of footsteps approach, and the next table over floated up to his as more chairs floated into place around the newly expanded table. Deja-vu washed over him as Fleur, Luna, Daphne, Arielle, Millicent Bulstrode, and several of the french witches whose names he still didn't know sat down around him.

He waited until they were all seated before he spoke. "I don't know where he is. I don't know where he sleeps anymore and I don't know where he disappears to every weekend. Sorry."

Most of the women, all but Daphne and Luna, deflated.

"Umm... I was hoping maybe you knew something about Pansy?" Millicent asked softly.

Neville shook his head at her. "No, sorry. Have you asked Colin Creevey?"

"Who's Colin Creevey?" She asked. Her thick brows moved toward each other like magnetic hams.

"He's a nice boy. He asked her to the Yule Ball." Luna replied.

"Oh, him. No, I haven't." She actually smiled, and Neville had to admit she looked like a normal girl when she wasn't scowling. "Thanks."

"I hope he knows something for you." Neville smiled back.

"So you haven't seen him eizer?' Arielle asked.

He shook his head again. "Apart from classes when we all see him, I haven't seen him since the -" His voice caught in his throat and forced him to clear it. "Since the funeral."

Daphne's hand slid over his collarbone supportively, and Luna dabbed her eyes with her ever-present handkerchief.

"Do you know eef Doombleydoore... quel est le... cherche justice?" One of the french witches asked. Neville recognized her face as having been with the first group that had cornered him and Luna to ask about Harry, but he still didn't know her name. He was getting better at French, but Arielle's reply to her was too fast for him to catch.

"Doombleydoore does anyzing to solve 'Ermione's dess?" Arielle clarified as she turned back to him.

"Of course not," Neville scowled, "He just says he is. 'Everything's under control, just ignore the fact that people are dying who had nothing to do with the stupid Tournament in the first place. Just go back to worshipping the ground I walk on'." He imitated bitterly. If he were any better as a wizard he'd go after Dumbledore himself, just for what he did to his parents. He knew he was a decade or so too early for that though. It was almost a shame Daphne had turned out to be everything he'd ever dreamed and more. If he weren't so happy with her he might just follow Harry to the continent next term and leave Hogwarts to rot. As it was, he had a number of seemingly unsolvable conundrums to solve, and all of them to do while he felt like his right arm was missing.

"Zo." Fleur said with a determined expression, "What can we do?" She looked at him as though he were the default group leader, but he had no answers for them. All he had was a heart full of pained gratitude. He'd gained his parents but lost his best friends.

"I'm sorry Fleur, I feel just as confused and helpless as you." He said softly. Tears escaped his eyes before he realized he was crying, but he didn't bother to wipe them away. His chest squeezed tight and he knew they wouldn't stop coming.

He shook his head sadly at Fleur and the rest of them. "All I know is that neither Duncan nor Hermione would want any of us to stop studying. That's all I've got right now. I know someone in this castle knows exactly what happened to Hermione and why, but I don't know who that is. If I did know who that was, I'm not sure I could stop myself from killing that person. I'm not sure I'd want to stop myself. So I'm going to keep studying because that's what they'd want."

Luna hugged his side then. She turned, wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face in his shoulder. He could feel her shake as she sobbed silently, so he patted her back until Daphne moved to stand behind her and took over. Luna stood and transferred her hug to Daphne when she did. They stood there next to him and expressed what they all felt.

Neville wasn't made for war. He knew that. He was happy to dig in the dirt and plant tiny seeds and nurture them, encourage them to grow. That was his purpose. That's what he was for. Nevertheless, he felt a hard, sharp coldness settle in his chest as he decided to ask his parents and Gran what he could do. Mum and Dad had been Aurors, they knew how to investigate. Gran knew just about everything, and saw connections where he didn't. She could ask a few different people different questions and come up with what had happened.

Yes, he would keep studying. That's what they would want. _He_ wanted answers.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Albus watched the boy shuffle up the stairs. His slumped shoulders and vacant expression spoke volumes about his mental state, and that tickled Albus pink. The boy didn't care what happened to him, and that couldn't be more perfect. It was the result he'd planned all along, even if nothing had actually gone according to plan. It wasn't _quite_ as good as noble self-sacrifice, but not caring whether he lived or died would be functionally the same. Albus thanked Merlin that the Greater Good won out in the end.

He pressed the head of the cute, chubby little phoenix figurine that sat on the left side of his desk, and the door opened as soon as the boy neared it.

"Duncan, my boy! Good to see you, have a seat." He greeted the lad warmly. "Lemon drop?"

The boy ignored him and shuffled forward to plop into a chair as though his legs wouldn't support a slow, controlled descent. He sat there and looked at the floor vacantly.

It was all Albus could do to keep his lips from smiling. He replaced the proffered bowl of lemony sweets back on his desk, then reclined in his chair to steeple his fingers in front of his face. It helped him concentrate on schooling his features.

"I suppose you're wondering why I sent for you." He used his favourite mysterious tone of voice to goad the conversation onward. Of course the boy wanted to know why he was there, nobody wanted to be summoned to the Headmaster's office.

Harry stared at the floor vacantly and moved not a muscle.

He gave no indication that he'd even heard Albus's statement. It caused a flicker of annoyance across his otherwise joyous mood, but then the boy was only acting exactly the way he wanted him to. Apparently not caring what happened to him included being summoned to the Headmaster's office.

It was a pity the Third Task was still weeks away, honestly. The boy was perfectly ripe to be sent after Tom immediately. If he was left to stew any longer... Albus nearly sat bolt upright as that thought completed itself.

What if the boy killed himself? Would that complete the prophecy, or would it render Tom immortal? Would he even be allowed to suicide? Technically he was one of the principals of the prophecy... _Neither can live while the other survives_... if the boy wasn't really living in the first place, would that simply make Tom the winner by default? It may allow the boy to attempt suicide and keep him alive if only technically. If Tom got hold of Harry now, as he was, and kept him alive... No, that would not do. That would not do at all.

He would have to snap the boy out of his catatonia, but keep him on a leash. Keep Harry looking to him for direction. Luckily, he already had the perfect means by which to accomplish both ends.

"I have been investigating poor Miss Granger's death," He told Harry gently, "While it is yet too soon to ascertain with any degree of certainty, the clues I have uncovered point toward followers of Voldemort as the ones who -"

Albus stopped mid-sentence, as Harry had flashed out of his chair and stood over him, his nose a hair's breadth from his own. Harry's eyes glowed with incandescent rage and Albus could feel the power rolling off the boy.

"WHO? WHERE?" Harry demanded.

The intensity of him made Albus's guts weak, as though he'd quaffed a bowel-loosening potion. He'd witnessed Harry's outburst in the Great Hall with Ronald, and had dismissed the phenomenon as being fake - theatre, intended to intimidate. He knew in that moment his previous assumption was incorrect.

It had been nearly a century since Albus had felt weak or insignificant, and he hated it as much as he always had - but he was no fool. He knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he was in immediate mortal danger, and part of him shrank from it. It was like being the focus of an enraged dragon's attention. He needed to defuse the situation, and quickly.

"I'm sorry, my boy. I don't yet know." Albus said in a tiny voice. Even to his own ears he sounded scared. He cleared his throat afterward, and took a deep breath.

Harry's face relaxed. The incandescence left his eyes, and he stood up again. Just like that, the horrible, clawing _pressure_ of him fell away, and Albus felt himself again almost immediately. As though towering rage had been the only thing animating him, Harry shuffled back to the other side of the desk and plopped into the chair again to stare at the floor blankly.

Nimue's nipples! Albus swore internally. The boy had completely discombobulated him! He took another deep breath and tried to refocus. Leash. He had to get the boy on a leash. Right.

"Of course, Voldemort's minions don't act on their own. Whatever they have done, he has ordered them to do, so her death can be laid at his feet." Albus said helpfully. Harry's eyes snapped upward to lock onto his as they took on a greater vibrancy. They didn't burn as they just had, but Albus could still feel the power in that gaze.

"I have been looking for Voldemort for some time, my boy. Rest assured that I will let you know the moment I find him."

The eyes dimmed again as Harry slumped into himself and his eyes dropped to the floor once more. Harry rose and shuffled out the door then, apparently having decided that their meeting was done. That irked Albus, but at the same time he was blissfully thankful for not having to deal with him anymore.

"I hope we haven't misstepped where that boy is concerned." Phineas' voice said, with undertones of awe after Harry had gone.

"The stick is useless, but the carrot seems to be working for now." Albus replied. "We'll see if it remains enough. It only has to last three more weeks."

"And if something goes wrong? Merlin, Albus what if the boy _wins_? He'll be ten times the terror Riddle could ever be."

Until that moment, until Phineas voiced that concern, the possibility that Harry might win had never occurred to him. He was forced to concede that Phineas might be right.

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it." Albus responded. For some reason, his mouth was suddenly very dry.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Neville led the pack as they rounded the shore to the far side of Black lake. He ran pilotless, automatically, as his thoughts turned toward the scene that unfolded on top of the dark waters bare months before. The footing was mucky as it always was after a rain, but he'd become used to it over time. Harry had told him when they'd started that running over uneven and snow-clogged surfaces would help his balance and his awareness of his surroundings, and he hadn't been wrong. He looked around reflexively, taking in the scenery and noted all the possible problems in the path ahead.

Daphne and Luna trailed him by a few hundred metres, they held their own pace and kept each other company. He knew they talked to each other for most of the run, and that was great. He knew he'd been miserable company for the last few months. He'd already planned to make it up to both of them, somehow. Fleur and Cedric jogged behind Daphne and Luna, more for the opportunity to spend time with each other away from school rather than any drive toward fitness.

There were others who joined, and Neville could see them spread halfway around the lake in ones and twos, but who those people actually were changed, sometimes on a daily basis.

He became aware, while he absently took in the pack he led, of another set of footfalls next to him on his right. There was nobody there... But whoever the nobody was, they left footprints next to his.

"Must be difficult to run like that." He said.

"It is, a bit." The Nobody replied. It was Harry's voice.

Neville nearly stumbled as he dropped out of pace, but Harry urged him on.

"Don't stop. Keep running. Everything as normal." Harry's voice came from ahead now, as he hadn't stopped. Neville struggled to catch up, and panted as he fell in beside Harry once again.

"Where... Have you been?" He asked. "Are you... Alright?"

"I'm alright, Nev. Right now Dumbledore is watching everything like a hawk. Whatever is going to happen will happen around the Third Task of the Tournament. I'm sorry to have to keep you away for now. I don't want to, but what's happening is too important to let feelings interfere. You can kick my arse for being a poor brother and poor friend later."

"No, I... Understand...I've seen Dumbledore... Looking for you every... Meal. He acts like he's... just smiling at everyone... but you can see his eyes scanning... Looking for you."

"Exactly. He's the one I need to keep in the dark. If I fill you and Luna in too soon, it will change how you look and act, and he'll know something is up. Please give my apology to Luna as well. I just didn't want you both to worry for nothing." Harry's voice sounded sad and conflicted.

"Will do." Neville said as his breath came easier and he settled back into a normal running rhythm. "She's going to kick your arse hard for not stopping to talk to her."

"I know. You'll get front row seats when she does, promise. A few more weeks, that's all."

Neville nodded. "I'll hold you to that." He said with a small grin. "I'm just glad you're here, mate. I can't say it's fun not knowing what's going on with you, but at least now I know you're not sitting in the dark think – that you're alright. That's more than we had."

He felt Harry's hand on his shoulder, then his footsteps stopped and Neville ran on alone. He felt a bit lighter as he did, like a little of the pain inside him had abated. Harry was getting better. It was just a little, but he wasn't the vacant Harry doll that he'd been for the past months anymore. He was moving, and that told Neville the world hadn't actually ended just yet.

He broke stride and walked once he reached the side of the lake closest to the castle, and strolled while Daphne and Luna caught up.

"What's wrong?" Daphne asked as soon as they fell into step either side of him.

"Nothing." He grinned and put an arm around each of them briefly. "I had a visit from Duncan. He wanted us to know he's alright, didn't want us to worry."

"Oh! Is he talking again?" Daphne asked.

"I'll give him a "don't worry", right in his stupid boy face." Luna growled.

"He didn't talk much, honestly. Said he needs to keep Dumbledore in the dark. He knows you're going to kick his arse, Luna. I told him so. He said he'll fill us all in later but he can't right now. Dumbledore is watching everyone too closely."

"That's more like it." Luna relaxed. "At least he hasn't gone completely dippy."

"I knew it!" Daphne whispered. "I knew Dumbledore wasn't just happily looking over the students. Every so often you can see a flicker of annoyance. That's because Duncan isn't showing up?"

"Very likely." Neville replied.

"Very definitely." Luna answered. "Dumbledore has had an unhealthy interest in Duncan ever since his first day. If Duncan is keeping Dumbledore in the dark, then that's why he's keeping us in the dark. Dumbledore isn't stupid. He'll know something is different if we're suddenly relaxed and happy."

"Why would Duncan want Dumbledore in the dark? What's going on? Is this something to do with Her-" Daphne's voice hitched and she couldn't finish.

Luna reached out and hugged her Club Sister. "Maybe. Duncan isn't the kind of person to just accept what he's told. If I had to guess, I'd guess he's investigating and doesn't want Dumbledore to know."

"Is there... anything we can do to help, you think?" Daphne whispered as she blinked away the water from her eyes.

Luna let her go and resumed their walk. "We are. By not knowing, we act how we should be acting. Upset, confused, hurt. Duncan doesn't want us to actually be those things, that's not how he is, but it's necessary for now."

Daphne nodded once. "I understand. If he's thinking tactically, then he must have at least put some of his grief aside. That... makes me happy. Makes me think he might... get better."

"He said what he's doing should be concluded by the Third Task." Neville said softly, amazed at their ability to work things out. They put his feelings into words better than he could have. Damn courting for taking so bloody long!

"I want to help more though." Daphne sighed. "I feel like I'm betraying her by doing nothing." She whispered.

Neville held her hand, and she shot him a shy smile. "So do we, Daph," He said softly, "That's exactly how we _should_ feel right now. It stinks, but we'll have to live with it for a few more weeks."

Daphne sighed and squeezed his hand. "I'll do my best."

"We still have each other." Luna smiled. "And we'll be here for Duncan when he needs us." She cast a pointed glance at Neville's eyes when Daphne looked away. Neville's lips tightened some and he nodded slightly.

"That will be wonderful. It might be the only time what I want to do and what's expected of me as a Slytherin will be one and the same." Daphne said. "I can't wait to be finished with school."

"Me either." Neville agreed. "I used to think staying here as a teacher would be great, but this year has shown me so much that I think it would be a small, sad world to live in. There's going to be so much more to learn after we leave here. So much more to see and do. There's so much wrong with the way things are, and it's going to be up to us to fix it. I can't do that hiding out in a greenhouse, no matter how much I might want to."

"At the very least we need to make sure nothing like this fucking Tournament ever happens again." Luna spat venomously. "I agree there's too much to be done to leave it to others. There seems to be an egregious lack of competence in general."

"I would _love_ to help you both corner people politically and force them to your will." Daphne's eyes shone with delight and she shivered a little.

Neville chuckled and kissed her fingers. "Alright then, the Coalition for Rectifying Wizarding Britain is on the job."

Daphne shivered again and reached out to snog him fiercely, then just as quickly broke away and looked at the ground while her face went red. "Sorry... I just... You're so... Sorry."

Neville grinned and Luna grinned at them, but she didn't say anything else for the rest of the walk back to the castle. Her mind already wrestled with the tasks she could foresee.

  
  


* * *

  
  


He ground his teeth for the entire boatride.

It wasn't bad enough he had to go to Azkaban personally, he could've dealt with that if it had been the only thing - it was the Dark Lord's Will, after all. No, the problem had been at the Ministry. It was a bloody good thing the Dark Lord would rule in a couple short weeks, he feared his own position at the existing Ministry had been compromised.

It had been a perfect plan. It had worked flawlessly on several other Administrators and Directors. Merlin damn that bloody bitch Bones. All it would have taken was a few seconds for her to sign the order to transfer Bellatrix and the others from Maximum Security, but no. She'd thrown off his _Imperius_ the second he'd cast it.

Worse, she'd then _recognized_ what had happened and started shouting orders for a lockdown. He'd only been able to escape after he'd confounded one of his fellow Aurors into thinking the doors were already locked.

When Lockdown was finalized, when headcounts were taken and wands examined, they'd all know he'd left the building. He'd be singled out for questioning, and Bones was fond of Veritaserum. Nuts to that.

The only good thing to come out of the whole fiasco was the fact that he'd left the maximum security bunch for last. He'd _Confundus_ the clerk with phony papers, or _Imperius_ the lot of them if necessary, but whatever happened on that Magic-forsaken island he was fairly certain he was finished at the Ministry. He would have to join the ranks at his Lord's feet, and that wasn't a particularly pleasant thought.

He _liked_ his autonomy. He liked his Authority, too. He'd joined the ranks of the Dark Lord because he wanted _more_ of both. Being next to his Lord guaranteed he'd have neither, but he could deal with that for a couple of weeks until Britain fell. His own efforts at the Ministry would guarantee that it was among the first casualties of the new war. Security at the Ministry leaked like a sieve – he was particularly proud of that handiwork.

Holes in the shift-change schedule, gaps in the security coverage, surveillance that covered irrelevant and inconsequential areas rather than priority areas, Yaxley knew them all. They could come and go as they pleased, to any place they pleased.

At his request - one did not order Malfoy, no matter the authority one possessed - Lucius had done the same to the Wizengamot's members. They could put their hands on just about any one of them at any time. Those that stayed in the country, that is. Most of the toffs would flee Britain as soon as the news of the Dark Lord's return broke. He personally couldn't wait to see the look on Fudge's face when Voldemort himself swept regally into Fudge's office, the jelly-spined twat.

He would have to remind himself to ask the Dark Lord for the privilege of being present.

The boat pulled alongside the dock and was kept still by the magic attached to the dock.

"Don't go anywhere, I'll be back with passengers." He told the elderly boat captain. The old man just sneered at him. Worthless squib.

He almost whooped for joy when he saw the wizard behind the security desk.

He'd trained Abercrombie Slagg when Slagg had applied to the Auror academy - for all of two weeks. Slagg had the mental fortitude of mashed turnip. He'd quit after two weeks and washed out. He'd complained of bullying. _Bullying_. Because criminals were always wonderfully kind and nice. Shithead.

"Morning Slagg." He nodded amicably.

"Yaxley. Business?"

He handed Slagg a folded interdepartmental memo regarding appropriate behaviour in the Commissary, and surreptitiously flicked his wand at the porridge lump that masqueraded as a wizard.

"Prisoner transfer. Crouch Junior, Pettigrew, and all three Lestranges."

"I see. Well, that looks... fine." Slagg blinked a few times as he handed the memo back to him. Slagg then wrote an order on a bit of parchment, which folded itself into a paper crane and flew off into the depths of the prison. "Can't say I'm sad to see the back of them. Bloody creepy, the lot of 'em. 'Specially that witch. Way she looks at you, like she can't decide whether to fuck you then eat you or eat you then fuck you."

"They're both lies. All she really wants is to kill you." He knew that from experience.

Slagg stared at him for a second, then shivered. "Glad it's you then, I'd be a walking corpse. Good luck with 'em."

The five prisoners were trotted out in wrist and ankle manacles, every one of them a blank-faced ghost of who they used to be. Just looking at them turned his stomach, but he'd never let that show. Display any sort of weakness and Bella would shred you by herself. He knew he could probably take Rodolphus and Rabastan. Maybe even at the same time. Pettigrew was a worthless lump, he'd expended any usefulness he'd had by betraying the Potters the first time around. Bella though... You _always_ watched yourself around Bella.

"Move, filth!" He barked at his 'prisoners'. They didn't blink an eye, any of them. They just shuffled forward like ancient corpses. Pettigrew breathed heavily, mouth open, and drooled as he went.

It took longer than he'd been on the island already just to load them into the boat, and he ground his teeth the whole time.

Finally the boat pulled away from the dock, and he waited until the island was out of sight in the distance before he pulled six miniature broomsticks from his pocket and enlarged them. He flicked his wand at the prisoners' manacles, and they fell to the deck of the boat with heavy thuds.

He pulled their wands from his pocket as well - liberated from Ministry storage - and enlarged them to normal size. For some reason, Pettigrew's wand had not been in storage. He handed wands to Rodolphus and Rabastan and Crouch, but before he handed Bella her wand, he leaned in and spoke to her in a low tone.

"The Dark Lord commanded I free you, but as a personal gift from me... You get to kill the old squib driving the boat."

Instantly, the slack-jawed, dead-eyed look vanished from her face and her lips separated in a ghastly parody of a smile. Her eyes burned. She snatched her wand from his hand and a quiet giggle escaped her. It was a sound Yaxley hoped to never hear again.

The boatman screamed for long, agonizing minutes before she let him die, and when she came out of the wheelhouse covered in blood, she wore a relaxed and happy smile that never touched her eyes. They still burned.

Rodolphus handed her a broom, and the six of them took off from the deck of the boat. Yaxley paused for a moment to cast a couple of _Bombarda_ at the front and rear of the boat, from the side, near the waterline. The boat began to sink, and by the time they were high enough for him to get his bearings over the trees, it had slipped under the waves.

He led them up the coast at a fast clip, toward their waiting Master.

  
  


* * *

  
  


It seemed the whole Charms class held its breath. It was the last class before the Third Task the the day after next, and Neville could tell none of the students in the class were really in the class - they merely waited for it to be over. Even Professor Flitwick seemed preoccupied.

Neville was worried about Harry. He hadn't shown even a hint of his old self since their run along the lake. He and Luna had talked about it, and they thought maybe, just maybe, Harry might intend to get himself killed in the Maze. He didn't think Harry had any kind of death wish, but at the same time if he thought he could go to where Hermione was, Harry would be gone before you could blink. He hoped he was wrong, but he'd already made plans with Luna just in case.

His eyes flicked across the room almost of their own volition to where Daphne sat. For some reason, Davis wasn't next to her as she normally was. Flint sat there and ignored Professor Flitwick, ignored the lesson entirely. Flint's whole focus was on Daphne, whose whole focus was on ignoring Flint. He sat too close to her, sideways in the chair so that he could face her. He whispered to her incessantly, a lascivious grin plastered to his face. Daphne showed no emotion whatsoever, but she did look a little green. Her eyes flicked upward then, as though sensing his own attention, and he could see her plea in her eyes.

 _Help_.

Neville felt his hackles rise and his fingers gripped his wand tighter. Flint was - rather, should have been - a seventh year, but he was incredibly dim. He was big and aggressive though. Harry might have been able to fight him, but Neville knew Flint would wipe the floor with him. He couldn't just go punch Flint in the mouth, no matter how much he wanted to.

He took a deep breath and tried to look at the situation from another angle. That's what his little brother would do, and Neville had learned through experience that he was usually right. He examined the situation critically, and asked himself what would the worst thing be for Flint just then?

He nodded to Daphne with a hopefully comforting smile. He flicked his wand at Flint under the table and silently cast _Sonorus_ on him.

"...keep you chained to the toilet and use you like the whore you always wanted to be..." It took a few seconds for Flint to realize his whisper could be heard throughout the entire classroom. Every eye in the room was on him as he looked around and turned slowly red.

"That's a week's detention, Mister Flint." Professor Flitwick looked ready to start spitting curses. "Twenty points from Slytherin for such appalling behaviour. Leave my classroom immediately."

Flint picked up his things and made his way to the door and glared at everyone in the room as he tried to figure out who had cast on him. Neville smiled quietly to himself, until a tiny voice in his head told him a truth.

It wasn't enough.

It didn't matter if Flint beat him bloody. Flint had dared to speak that way to _Daphne_. He realized in that moment that she wasn't just the girl of his dreams. She wasn't just the woman he courted and wanted to marry. She was _Daphne_ , and she had carved a Daphne-shaped place in his heart.

It could not stand. He would not let it.

"Markus Flint." Neville said in a coldly angry voice as he rose from his seat. "You have given insult to a Lady."

The entire classroom went deathly silent.

Ron Weasley actually started to shiver and sank lower in his seat.

Neville turned to Professor Flitwick. "My apologies Professor. I would ask that you referee a duel between us, but duels are for gentlemen- not diseased mutts. Dogs get beaten, and Mister Flint has chosen me to deliver his. Please excuse my absence."

Without waiting for an answer, Neville shouldered his bag and stepped resolutely toward Flint, then paused just long enough to look Flint in the eyes. "Outside, dog!" He commanded, then walked toward the exit.

After being called out like that, Neville knew there was no way Flint wouldn't follow him outside. He also knew that Flint hadn't passed exams in three years, and that meant he was thick as an ox pudding - so Neville wasn't worried about being silently cursed in the back. He'd seen Flint's spellwork, and it was both lazy and loud. In that respect, Flint was a lot like a bigger, meaner Ronald Weasley. It was only thanks to Harry and Hermione that Neville even knew about silent casting. It was thanks to their daily training he was able to accomplish it.

Sure enough, when Neville reached the front courtyard, he heard Flint's stomping steps behind him. He set his bag down and turned to face Flint, but Flint had already started to sprint toward him, a rage-filled grimace on his face.

Neville's guts went cold and his instincts screamed at him to run. Run and hide.

Instead, he flicked his wand and cast a silent _impedimentia_ jinx. Months of training with Harry and Hermione and Luna had not gone to waste.

Flint's next steps collided with an invisible barrier, and he continued forward without his legs under him. He got his arms under him, but he still smacked his face on the hard stone of the courtyard. That made Neville smile, briefly.

Flint roared as he got up, and resumed his charge toward Neville. Flint's wand wasn't even out – apparently he relied entirely on intimidation and physical violence. Neville waited until Flint was almost within punching distance.

" _Ossio Rumpitur_." He whispered, and sent a grey bolt from his wand to impact the meat of Flint's left thigh. Markus let out a short cry as he stumbled again, but his fist connected with Neville's face as he fell.

The world flashed bright for a split second as his bell was rung, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd thought it would be - as he'd feared it would be. He'd walked into the door at home a few times, it was rather like that. Markus, on the other hand lay on his side on the stones at his feet and clutched his leg.

" _Ossio Rumpitur_." Neville whispered again, this time at his right thigh. The resultant CRACK echoed around the courtyard. Markus growled and his breath came in hisses through clenched teeth, but it only made Neville angry. When he thought he was in a position of strength, Flint wouldn't hesitate to bully and threaten. As soon as the shoe was on the other foot, though...

Neville sent grey bolts at each of his arms for good measure. The thick bones of Flint's upper arms cracked as well.

"Do I have your attention yet, Flint?" Neville crouched next to Flint's head. Markus's eyes were wide with pain, but his expression was still one of hatred. He sucked breath through his misshapen teeth and didn't answer. Neville felt a tickle in his nose, and wiped it with the back of his left hand. His hand came away smeared with blood.

Neville smiled.

Apparently getting hit hard enough to make his nose bleed didn't really affect him much, and that made him happy. He was tougher than he thought he was.

Neville pointed his wand at Flint's left eye. "I asked you a question, dog!" Neville's voice snapped like a whip and echoed through the courtyard.

Flint's eyes maintained their hatred, but Neville could see fear behind them as well. His face slackened and he whispered "Yes."

"Yes what? You address your better, Flint. Do it properly." Neville cast _scopamultem_ , then cast a harmless red sparks, though Flint didn't know it was red sparks. All he saw was the tip of Neville's wand glow an angry red.

"Uhh..." Flint's eyes grew wider, and fear overcame the hatred within them.

"Yes _sir_." Neville supplied. A drop of blood dripped from his nose to land on Flint's school robes.

"Yes sir." Flint repeated softly.

"Louder." Neville demanded.

"Yes sir!" Flint raised his voice by a fraction.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU." Neville bellowed at his face. Another drop of blood.

"YES SIR!" Flint shouted. It clearly hurt for him to do so, but his eyes never left the angry red tip of Neville's wand.

"That's better." Neville relaxed again, and pointed his wand at Flint's crotch. "Do you know what the _Eunuchem Totalis_ spell does, Flint?"

Flint's fear grew even greater, and he shook his head as he answered "No sir!"

"It's for castration, Flint. My ancestors used it to control breeding among their slaves in the West Indies. If you _ever_ go anywhere near Daphne again, if you _ever_ speak to her for _any_ reason, I will make you smoother down there than a baby girl. Do I make myself clear?"

"No, please no!" Flint begged.

"One word to Daphne and your line ends. Am I understood?" Another drop of blood.

"Yes! Yes sir!"

"LOUDER." Neville shouted.

"YES SIR!" Flint bellowed. "PLEASE!"

Neville cancelled the red sparks and the _scopamultem_ , and moved his wand back to Flint's face. "Before we finish, I would just like to add that I hope you test me on this, Flint. No doubt some of your housemates will tell you that I'm soft and weak and won't follow through. I want you to know the truth, Markus. Look in my eyes and see the truth."

Markus did as he was told, and what he saw there caused him to shrink away as much as he could without moving his arms or legs.

"Good." Neville told him in a quiet, steely tone. "I'm glad we understand each other." Another drop of blood landed on the courtyard stone.

Neville stood and silently vanished his blood from the stone and Flint's robes, as it wasn't a healthy thing to have your blood lying around where anyone could get it. He picked his bag up from where he'd dropped it, and noticed as he did so that the entire back half of the courtyard was filled with bodies. Far more people than was in the entire charms class stood there slack-jawed and silent as they stared at him and Flint.

Neville shouldered his bag as he strolled over to the crowd and held his arm out for Daphne. "Fancy some tea, darling?" He asked her.

Daphne hooked her arm into his with a stunned expression, and he led her inside while whispered conversations swelled in their wake.

Neville made some haste toward the kitchens, and once they were inside with the portrait door closed, he collapsed into a chair with an explosive sigh.

Daphne took her wand out and then straddled his lap, facing him. "Hold still." She said. "Your nose is broken."

"Is it?" Neville's eyebrows rose. "It doesn't feel that bad, honestly. I always thought it would be some great, shattering pain. Hm."

Daphne bit her lip as she concentrated, and waved her wand at his face. " _Episkey_." She whispered. There was a brief pain, like being slapped in the face, and then he felt normal again.

"Thank you." He smiled at her.

She grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him _hard_.

She moaned into his mouth as her tongue dove past his lips and caressed his own. Her hips moved back and forth, and ground her softness into his lap while she moaned. Neville recovered from the shock quickly, and raised his hands to cup her perfect breasts. She responded with ragged moans in the back of her throat and crushed his hands to her breasts with her own. His body responded to her ministrations in the most embarrassing way possible, but to his surprise it seemed to be exactly what she wanted. She ground herself against him with renewed fervor while he kneaded her breasts roughly. Her breath came in quick gasps as she detached from his mouth, so he put his mouth to use on her neck and collarbones. She wrapped her arms around his head and changed her hip motion from back and forth to include up and down.

A rose-coloured fog settled on his brain then, and without really thinking, he switched one of his hands from her breast to her behind. Her ragged moans gained urgency then to match the motions of her hips. Neville knew they couldn't actually do anything for real - not yet. It would invalidate their contract if they did, and that would be disaster. Still, he felt his will to resist the urge to tear the clothes from her body crumble slowly as she bounced up and down on his erection.

Just as he neared the end of his wits, Daphne cried out sharply and wrapped her legs under the seat of the chair as her arms constricted around his head. He could feel her soft wet heat pulse against him while her legs quivered. She didn't breathe at all, she just held him while her stomach spasmed and her nethers twitched against his. His mind reeled with it – she was _spectacular_.

Finally she gasped a breath, followed by heavy pants as she collapsed bonelessly against him.

"Ohhh," She moaned, "Hahhh... mmm." She raised her head slowly to kiss him again, softly, tenderly. "I want you inside me so badly." She whispered.

He kissed her back, shocked and humbled to hear words he'd dreamed about for years. The real thing was _so much better_.

"I know we can't though, Daphne. I'm deadly serious about you - I want to marry you. I always have, ever since we were children. It always seemed like just a fantasy, but you're real. These last few months have been a dream come true for me, but it's more than that. Yes, you're beautiful- I've always thought so, but you're so much more. You're so _smart_ , Daph. You're smart, and tough and funny and wonderful, and the more I get to know you the deeper in love with you I fall. Of course I want you - it's all I can do to _not_ tear your clothes off and take you on this table - but I want _all_ of you. I want to protect you and make you happy for your whole life, not just now."

"Oh Nev," She whispered. She looked into his eyes, and he could see the tears coat her gorgeous sapphire orbs before they gathered and fell onto his chest. "You really mean that." Her lips twisted as she fought to keep sobs down, but Neville could see it was a losing battle. He wrapped his arms around her and cradled her to him as the most precious thing in his life.

"Of course I do." He said softly. Daphne lost the battle then, and broke into choking sobs as she clung to him. He stroked her hair and rocked her gently back and forth. "You might not want to know, but it was usually you I saw naked when I..." He cleared his throat, "... at night."

Daphne pulled away from him to look into his eyes again as snot and saliva trailed the distance between them. Tears still streamed from her eyes as she looked at him quizzically. He could feel his whole face heat up as he smiled back sheepishly.

Daphne started to laugh. Tears streamed down her face and she still sobbed, but she laughed at him at the same time.

Harry's endlessly-repeated words flooded into his mind as he watched Daphne. _Be happy while you rage. Be sad while you laugh._

In that moment, Neville _understood_.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Severus carefully sprinkled the precisely slivered boomslang skin into the cauldron and smiled when the mixture turned a delicate pink. Perfect.

He turned to the grindylow tooth next, it needed to be shaved into curls. Thin and even, for maximum absorption. He picked the tooth up and readied his wand, but pain bloomed in his forearm and he dropped the tooth to the bench.

" _Always_ when I'm brewing." He sighed.

He quickly cast a stasis charm on the cauldron and sealed the door to his office. Once he was sure he was alone, he rolled up his sleeve. He knew he received a message from the Dark Lord just from the feel of the twisty, writhing pain beneath his skin, like a snake in his veins.

_**ASSIST YAXLEY TO ALTER THE TRIWIZARD CUP AND LEAVE AGAIN UNDETECTED.** _

The black lettering was as unmistakable as it was painful as it unravelled from his dark mark and undulated around it. He threw a lid on top of the cauldron and sealed it shut, then stored the perishable ingredients back in their containers. He had no idea how long Yaxley would take, so it was better to err on the side of caution.

At least Yaxley was somewhat competent. With any luck he'd finish quickly and leave. With an annoyed sigh he swept out of his office toward the gates, and on down into Hogsmeade.

Rosmerta scowled as he entered but brought him his usual tea just the same. He had no idea what the woman had against him, but after thirteen years with no change it hardly mattered.

It took him twenty minutes to finish his tea. He nursed it while his mind worked on ways to improve the potion he brewed. He even went so far as to pull out quill and parchment and make notes. Finally, as the dregs of the pot dwindled, he heard a whisper from the air next to him.

"I'm here." Yaxley's tone was not congenial.

Severus didn't answer, he merely put away his writing implements and gave Rosmerta a sickle for the tea, same as he always did. Once he was in the street, he walked back toward the castle. As he walked, he quietly asked "Can you hear me?"

"Yes." The reply came from his left.

"Go to the Shrieking Shack. I will meet you inside." To anyone watching, it would appear that Professor Snape simply returned to the castle after having tea and writing some notes.

Exactly as Severus intended.

He did not return to the castle proper, however. Instead he approached a thick and gnarled old tree with supple branches and a terrible attitude. One last glance to make sure he was alone, and he simply disappeared as he approached the tree.

Inside the shrieking shack, Severus saw Yaxley immediately despite his invisibility. The fool hadn't wandered the floor, he'd simply walked in and stood in a corner to wait. His footprints in the thick dust were like glowing pointers.

"Follow me." Severus told him. "No sound." He turned and crept back down the tunnel that had led him to the Shrieking Shack, but rather than return to the tree he took a side branch and emerged into the castle proper.

"I assume you remember where the Trophy Room is. I seem to recall you spent a great deal of time in it during your schooling. I will join you shortly."

"Thank you Severus. You're still a twat."

Severus didn't bother to wait, he went about his rounds. He entered the Trophy Room four minutes and twenty-seven seconds later.

"Have you finished?" He asked impatiently.

"Shut up, the protections on this thing are ridiculous." Yaxley's voice was strained and he panted.

"I have been commanded to assist you. I cannot if you do not explain the task."

"You... already know what this is supposed to do. You had to be the one who told the... Dark Lord, because he told me. I'm just..." Yaxley grunted with effort, and a faint sizzle sounded. "Finally. Re-writing the where and when. As my Lord commanded."

The Tri-Wizard cup flashed briefly, a series of light blue flashes while Yaxley whispered something to it.

"It will take the boy to the Dark Lord?"

"Of course."

"You installed a trigger phrase, what if the boy fails to activate it?"

Silence answered his question, broken only by the faint SNAP of the protections on the cup re-activating.

"Finished." Yaxley said. "I presume the way in is my way out?"

"If you can manage it."

The door opened and closed again a second later.

"Never liked you either, Yaxley." Severus told the empty room. Still, Yaxley hadn't tarried or dawdled and the thing was over with none the wiser. Competent.

He took a last look at the Tri-Wizard cup before he left the Trophy Room and stalked through the darkened halls toward Albus's office.

The door swung open as he approached, signalling that the old man was awake. He was behind his desk, in fact, fingers steepled while he sucked on a lemon drop. Albus looked terrible. The changes were subtle, but Severus paid attention to everything - it kept him alive. Dumbledore looked haggard and tired. Weak. He'd looked old before his time, but now he looked far older than he actually was.

"What can I do for you, Severus?" He asked.

"The Tri-Wizard cup has been altered. It will take him to the Dark Lord. The end of the Tournament will be the end of the boy." He told Dumbledore.

Dumbledore sat forward and leaned on his elbows. "It all ends tomorrow. Thank you for telling me, Severus. I will need time to prepare to meet Tom."

"Are you sure you should do so alone? You don't look well."

"With a day to prepare I will be fine. It's just as well, the boy needs to be used soon. He passes ripe on his way to rot."

"I will brew you some... tonics... See that you use them before the Task ends."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding. "I shall. Thank you Severus."

He nodded at the old man and quietly left his office. A day was too short a time to brew anything significant, but he could brew a few combat potions concurrently. When the opponents were equal, as Dumbledore and Voldemort were, anything could tip the scales one way or the other.

He swept into his own office and began brewing immediately. Even with Dumbledore's considerable power, there was no way he would leave it to the old man to accomplish alone. Severus had too much riding on Dumbledore's success for that. Voldemort would stack the odds in his favor and then dangle hope in front of you while killing you with the wand you didn't see. Dumbledore was simply too old and too arrogant to win without his help, and Severus needed them both dead to be free.

It was almost a shame the key to the whole thing was Lily's child... it still turned his stomach that she had ruined herself with that filth. At least the evidence of that gross error would be erased. It wouldn't bring her back to him, nor change anything else - dead was dead. He had long ago learned to live with the fact that he would never have what he truly wanted.

Once Dumbledore and Voldemort were dead and he was free, he would find enough of what he wanted to at least find some contentment. Once the boy died the battle would rage, and Severus would be the one to walk away free. All Dumbledore had to do was trust him enough to drink what he gave him.

  
  



	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note:
> 
> Sorry everyone, I absolutely hate Author's Notes, this is the first and hopefully only one I will write. This one is to apologize - I had to go back and edit Chapter 11 while Harry and Hermione were in Gringott's speaking to Kneescythe.   
> Please go back and read that before you read this chapter. The end of it won't make sense if you don't.   
> It turned out that a key fact for the story never actually made it into the story. I forgot to shift that key fact to the live story when the bit it was in was excised and left on the cutting room floor. So that has been fixed. Sorry, and on with the story.

  
  


Fleur and Cedric went over their strategy in hushed tones. There wasn't any prohibition against the competitors working together, so they planned to watch each other's backs and take the cup together. Viktor kept to himself, but he went through simulations in his head and occasionally mimed fighting something only he could see. Sometimes it was a wand movement, sometimes he wrestled the air.

Harry cleared his throat to get their attention, and they all stopped what they were doing to look at him in surprise. It cut him that he'd done such a good job of dropping out of life that they were all shocked he could make noise.

"This isn't a game anymore." He said quietly, "It isn't even a dangerous Tournament. It's a trap meant for me. Whatever you do, don't touch the Triwizard cup, it's been made into a Portkey that will take you to Voldemort."

"What?!" Cedric demanded, half angry and half unbelieving. Fleur simply frowned as she looked between the two of them.

"I'm going to go directly to the center of the maze and end this farce in about two minutes. I just wanted you to know so you're not upset later." Harry explained.

"Trollshit!" Viktor exploded. He stalked toward Harry and poked his finger into Harry's chest. "You say these because you loose!"

"Viktor." Harry said calmly as he looked into his eyes, "You know I don't give a damn about the tournament. I never did. I didn't choose to turn this event into something else, Voldemort did. I'm not going to go get the cup in order to win, I'm going to get the cup so that you can get on with your life. I'm going to go kill Voldemort. Again."

Viktor sneered at him. "Khow you are kill Voldemort?! You are student! You are just boy!"

Harry held up his left hand and willed his House Ring visible. "I am Lord Harry James Potter."

Viktor's face fell, and his eyes flicked to the ring that Harry held up for them all to see, Potter crest plainly visible. He took in the crest, Harry's green eyes, his unrulable length of black hair, and seemed to see him for the first time. He reached up and brushed Harry's hair back from his forehead to reveal his scar. His eyes widened and he took a step backward and made a small bow in front of him.

"Excuse. I not know." He said quietly.

"What?!" Cedric echoed himself.

"You... are 'Arry Potteur..." Fleur's eyes locked onto him and she started breathing heavily.

"Sorry I had to keep it from you." Harry apologized. "Once Voldemort is dead I'll tell everyone. Until then I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone."

Viktor looked from Fleur to Harry. "Is no joke. Is really Dark Lord to khill you."

Harry nodded. "No joke. I Legillimensed several Death Eaters in order to find out. I know it's a trap and I'm off to spring it."

Viktor took a deep breath and blew it out his nose, and his face said he'd come to terms with the Tournament ending stupidly. "Khow you get szru maze fast? You vant khelp?"

"I appreciate that, Viktor. I really do, but it's not necessary. The maze is unfair for the same reason me playing quidditch would be unfair. I'm just going to fly to the center. I don't need a broom."

"You fly vit no brum." He narrowed his eyes at Harry.

Harry Resonated and rose off the floor.

Viktor scowled and ground his teeth. "I khate you."

"I can teach you how if you want." Harry resumed standing on the ground.

Viktor's eyebrows jumped. "You vud do these?"

Harry nodded. "Sure. It'll take a long time to learn though. I'll have to come visit you fairly regularly."

Viktor broke into a joyous grin. "Kha!" He grabbed Harry in a bear hug and bounced him around the tent.

"A simple. Yes. Would. Suffice." Harry said when he wasn't being compressed.

Viktor dropped Harry and clapped him on the back with a huge grin.

A second later, Bagman entered the tent, preceded by his tight-shirted paunch.

"Champions!!" He opened his arms expansively. "Feeling good, I hope!"

"I honestly have no idea." Cedric said. He looked at Harry, then at Bagman, then at Viktor, then at Fleur.

Fleur smiled at him and kissed him, and he seemed to snap out of his daze.

"Well if _that_ doesn't make you feel good, then you need to check your pulse, young man!" Bagman laughed.

Cedric shot an indecipherable look at Harry, but Harry had already resumed his grieving face and mouthed "Later" at him.

"Everyone's feeling warmed up and ready to go, I hope? You two obviously are! Hah!" Bagman waved a hand at Cedric and Fleur.

Viktor looked Bagman in the eyes and said in french "You are a stupid, fat, lazy, gambling grease pig. You are a disgrace to that uniform." Then he turned on his heel and left the tent.

Cedric stood and pulled Fleur with him by the hand. He paused in front of Bagman, and Cedric glared at Bagman as well. "What he said." Then they left the tent too. Harry had to use Occlumency exercises to keep from laughing.

"Why doesn't anyone remember I don't speak french?" Bagman asked quietly. He took one look at Harry's black stormcloud face and just left the tent after Cedric and Fleur.

The stands and central stage were lit by floating _lumos_ spheres, and Harry internally shook his head. Now the Ministry would have people sit and watch a patch of darkness on the quidditch pitch instead of a patch of dark water. Why were there even stands at all?

Dumbledore smiled and raised his hand to the crowd, then paused to drink in their cheers like an alcoholic at a distillery. After a long moment he raised his other hand as well, and the shouts died down.

"Welcome to the Third Task, the culmination of the Triwizard Tournament!" He bellowed in his magically-loud voice. "Your Champions, these four brave souls, go now into the most deviously crafted maze to ever exist! Therein to battle for their very lives with their wits and their magic, and even their very bodies..." He went on to describe how arduous and terrifying everything would be in the maze, but Harry had already tuned it out. It was obvious his entire speech was intended to make everyone in the stands glad they weren't in the maze - to distract them from the fact that they would be staring at the opening between two fifteen-foot tall bushes for an hour in the dark.

It would really only be a minute or two, but they didn't know that. Ludo took over the shouting after Dumbledore had worked the crowd into a quivering lather. He explained that Viktor would enter the maze first, that was his reward for being in first place, and that Fleur and Cedric, tied for second, would enter after him based on their scores. Harry would enter the maze twelve minutes after Viktor, as he was dead last by a very large margin.

"Viktor, GO!" Bagman shouted, as he clicked a stopwatch in his hand. Viktor pulled out his wand and cast a glance backward at Harry before he jogged purposefully into the maze.

After a minute and twenty seconds, Ludo shouted "Fleur and Cedric, GO!" They held hands and just walked through the opening.

Harry sat back on his chair and crossed one ankle over his opposite knee and stayed that way, looking at the floor of the stage until Bagman whispered to him ten minutes later.

"You're up in one minute, kid."

Harry looked up at him. "Out of curiosity, did you bet on me to bring back the cup?"

Ludo blinked, then laughed at him. "That's an idiot's bet, kid. No chance."

Harry smiled back at him. "You may want to leave now, ahead of your debtors. You're about to have a very unhappy evening."

Ludo laughed even harder. "I like you kid. I'd say I hope you don't die in there, but that's what I bet on, so I kinda hope you do. No offense."

"Time me." Harry said. "I'll be back here with the cup in under two minutes."

"Alright, you're on. I'll time you just for the sheer balls you've got. Get ready." He put his wand to his throat again and yelled to the crowd "Duncan, GO!"

Harry ran from the stage into the maze, then cast the three nondetections and took to the air. As he flew toward the center of the quidditch pitch, he noticed that the center of the maze was slightly farther away than actual center, but it was brightly lit. As he descended toward it, he saw an Erumpent and a giant scorpion just waiting patiently for anyone to enter their space.

He dropped down behind them to the shimmering Triwizard cup and quietly flew away with it back toward the entrance to the maze. He paused overtop of Viktor, then Fleur and Cedric to tell them he had the cup and they could go back to the entrance. He set down not far from the opening everyone in the stands watched breathlessly, cancelled the nondetections, and sauntered nonchalantly back into the light.

Bagman's jaw dropped open, and Harry saw him reflexively click his stopwatch as he walked out of the entrance to the maze holding the cup.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, glared openly at him, then descended on him as he walked up onto the stage.

"What have you done?!" Dumbledore whispered furiously, "How dare you make this a mockery?!" Part of Harry's mind noticed that Dumbledore had a wild glint in his eye, like he had to struggle to control himself. His breath smelled... medicinal.

Harry bit back the furious retort that boiled up his throat. How dare he? How dare _he_? His fingers tingled and clenched with the need to grab the old man and tear his head from his shoulders. He just stared death into Dumbledore's eyes while he wrestled his own urges back under control. When he had a grip on himself, he turned to Madame Maxime and Karkaroff and responded to Dumbledore loudly. "As though this entire tournament wasn't a mockery to begin with! I'm sure Madame Maxime agrees! Have you read her article in La Parisien Magique?" Harry leaned to the side of Dumbledore and looked to Madame Maxime. "I thought it was brilliant, by the way."

Madame Maxime smiled and inclined her head toward him gracefully.

"And anyway, I read the rules. There are no restrictions against flying." Harry turned his attention back to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore tried to Legillimens him again, and Harry had to stop himself from his knee-jerk defensive reaction. It wouldn't do to have Dumbledore unconscious just then. Instead, he let the Headmaster flounder and flop against his closed mind like a fish made of gelatin. "Have you found Voldemort yet?" He whispered angrily at the old man.

That sent a shock through Dumbledore, and he seemed to remember his true purpose.

"Ah. Yes, quite right, no rules against flying. Well done then." Dumbledore plastered a smile onto his face and went to confer with Madame Maxime and Karkaroff, as Bagman seemed to be suddenly missing.

Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor emerged from the maze then and joined Harry on the stage while they waited for the judges to finish their deliberations. It was plain even from where they stood that Dumbledore argued with Maxime and Karkaroff. He needed Harry to 'win' the Third Task in order to send him to slaughter, despite the fact that Maxime and Karkaroff probably both thought Dumbledore had hidden the cup somewhere close by and told Harry where. He wondered what they'd say if they knew Dumbledore was actually conspiring to kill him rather than exalt him.

Viktor leaned over to whisper to Harry with a manic glint in his eye. "Khow fast you go vhen fly?"

Harry stopped the smile that threatened his facade before he whispered back. "Faster than any broom will ever go. Like spellfire."

Viktor's face split in a beatific grin. "Vhen ve start train?"

Harry tightened his lips for a second before he answered. "Even if I don't die tonight, I might not be here tomorrow. Find Neville, he can get you started. If I do die tonight, then I'm sorry for getting your hopes up."

Viktor put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "I khappy I not you. To face Dark Lord to fight for life... You are bravest man I ever meet. I am glad you khave khonour."

Viktor's eyes were clear and humble as Harry looked into them, and could see Viktor did not think himself up to the challenge Harry faced. He nodded to the other man.

"I've done my best to prepare. I'm glad I got to know you a little Viktor, even if we did butt heads some." He held out a hand.

Viktor clasped forearms with him. "Da. Do not die."

"Your attention please!" Dumbledore's voice rang out through the night, magically enhanced to reach the farthest stand. "After deliberating with my fellow judges, we have come to the conclusion that Mister MacFusty broke no rules in retrieving the Triwizard cup, and his victory in the Third Task will stand!

Dumbledore reached out and took the second handle of the cup to raise it in the air. Harry knew he couldn't let go, so he pretended to be happy at the outcome and waved to Neville and Daphne and Luna in the stands. He wasn't sure if it was them who started it, but cheering rang out over the stage.

Dumbledore waved Cedric, Fleur, and Victor over to them as the cheering surged, then waved his hand to the crowd for the cheering to die down.

"The winner of the Triwizard Tournament will be announced tomorrow at dinner during closing ceremonies! A round of applause for your Triwizard Champions -"

Harry felt the now-familiar yank of portkey travel as he and Dumbledore suddenly spun away from the Tournament and the crowd. Dumbledore's expression held no surprise. His eyes focused on Harry, and he set his jaw and glowered. Then Dumbledore's mouth opened to say something, but he didn't finish the first syllable, as that's when their ride ended.

The instant he felt ground beneath his feet, Harry dove and rolled away as spellfire blasted toward them from every side. The ground he evacuated sizzled with spells. He felt a couple of them slide off his skin as he gained his feet and bolted, flat out in a zig-zag toward the tombstones that would provide cover. He dove again and rolled behind the first tombstone he could reach, just as a corner of the stone fragmented from spellfire. With his back to the smooth stone, he took a moment to breathe.

"Incarcerate." He said with a grin, then cast the nondetections on himself.

  
  


* * *

  
  


The grass to his left rustled, and he could see it being pressed flat in two places a foot apart. He was tempted to throw a stunner at whoever it was just for the anonymous thrill of it, but he quashed the urge. Under other circumstances, maybe. Tonight was serious business.

"Identify yourself." He whispered instead.

"Morrigan's tits!" was the reply. Clearly whoever it was carried some tension. He had to stifle a chuckle at having startled whoever it was. The voice sounded older, gravelly. Someone who enjoyed firewhiskey and perhaps a cigar or pipe.

"This creeping around is trollshit!" The voice complained, "Which one are you?"

"I asked you first." Yaxley reminded it. Definitely older and used to getting its way.

"Parkinson." The voice spat.

"Evening, Lord Parkinson. Not fond of invisibly creeping through twilit cemeteries then?"

"No I'm bloody not. I have intellect and resources. I don't _need_ to do this shit. Which one are you?" Parkinson hissed.

"Yaxley." Corban replied.

"Oh." Parkinson's tone softened, "So you _are_ used to this shit work."

Arrogant wanker. Born with a silver spoon up your arse, so naturally you get to look down on everyone who can actually get things done. Soon as the Dark Lord rose... Corban looked forward to teaching rich useless twats like him that it was capability, not money that made one worthwhile. Yaxley was Sacred twenty-eight himself, he'd just inherited next to nothing from his less than frugal ancestors.

"It was part of my job, certainly." He replied in a civil tone. The Dark Lord hadn't risen yet, Britain was not under control yet, and Parkinson still held a higher position than he did.

"Well, the Dark Lord needs people everywhere." Parkinson said in an amicable tone. "We all serve in our way."

At least he wasn't being treasonous as well as twattish.

"The Dark Lord tasked you with gathering everyone here tonight, didn't he?" Parkinson asked.

The rumor mill must be working at capacity, Corban thought. You could take the Slytherin out of Hogwarts... "He did." He replied.

"How many of us are here tonight then?" Parkinson asked. There was a... restraint to his voice, as though he held something back.

"All." Corban said.

Parkinson harrumphed. "All but the ones in maximum security, you mean."

"The Dark Lord said he wanted them all, so no, I mean _all_." He asserted.

Parkinson made strangled noises. "You mean Lestrange is _here_? _Now_?"

"Very likely next to the Dark Lord. You know how she is."

"Shit... shit. As long he's got her on a short leash..." Parkinson sighed.

"That sounds less than enthusiastic." Yaxley noted.

Parkinson harrumphed again. "I'm _smart_ , Yaxley. You can walk around with a rabid dog, but you don't take your eyes off it."

"It helps if you bring it treats." Corban smiled.

"Hah! Is that how you managed then? What did you give her? Not a good bedding, I'll wager."

Corban grimaced at the images that conjured in his mind. "No. Freedom, her wand, a broom, and a squib."

"Hm. Yes, that would about do it. I assume the squib was sacrificial?"

"Let's just say I never want to hear her _giggle_ again." Corban shivered with the memory.

"Merlin's..." Parkinson's voice faded, as though there were just nothing adequate to say about the horror of such a thing.

Corban shook the memory of it off after a moment of silence, and he recalled something he'd seen before his position at the Ministry had been compromised.

"I saw your Disownment order while I was at the Ministry. Did that go through?" He asked.

Parkinson grunted. "Worthless. You raise them and train them for fifteen years for a single task, and they go and ruin all your plans instead. She only had one bloody job. Worthless."

The venomous tone Parkinson used made Corban wonder if the man hadn't just disposed of the girl. "I'll take that as a yes." He said dryly.

Parkinson harrumphed again. "Doesn't matter. I learned my lesson. It's harsh having to start over, but I did things correctly this time."

"What do you -" Corban started to question what Parkinson meant, but the alarm sounded to warn them of an incoming portkey and everything else was suddenly irrelevant. Corban adjusted his grip on his wand and turned from Parkinson toward the large, winged reaper monument where Dumbledore and the passenger would arrive.

Dumbledore... _Finally_.

Corban had to suppress his joy at finally getting to put that sanctimonious, unassailable arsehole in his place. The Dark Lord had made it clear that no-one could kill Dumbledore, that he was to be incapacitated, but that didn't necessarily mean only stunned or bound. Potter, on the other hand, was stun only.

"Come on, come on..." He whispered excitedly.

A swirl of colour flashed into existence and resolved into Dumbledore and the boy in a blink. Corban immediately flashed two _Artus Extorqueo_ at Dumbledore. He could see dozens of stunners and bodybinds fly toward the old man the instant his second spell left his wand, but his spell hit the old man first. Dumbledore howled with pain as his left knee was wrenched inside its socket, and he dropped like a sack of twigs in a bad dress. Corban's second spell hit the old man while he was down, and wrenched his right wrist over ninety degrees. The old man's cries of pain were music to his ears.

Corban slashed his wand at the boy - who wisely dove away from the bearded twat - but missed. How could a body that size move that fast? He slashed again and again as the boy darted left and right, fast and slow toward the field of tombstones that would provide cover.

He swore that two of his stunners actually hit the boy and somehow _slid off_ , but that was ridiculous. It had to be a trick of the strobing light as spells hurtled toward the kid from everywhere.

Then the kid was gone, hidden among the tombstones.

Tense moments went by.

"Well? Where is the boy?!" Their master wheezed angrily.

"He's gone, my lord. Vanished." A voice called back. It was a youthful voice... Malfoy. He'd heard that voice at Malfoy manor. Must be Lucius' boy.

"Yeah, gone. Musta kilt 'um tot'ly gone." That was Crabbe's boy. No mistaking Crabbe's speech patterns.

"He's Disillusioned." The Dark Lord sighed. "No matter, we don't have time to look for him - the ritual requires action. I shall use Dumbledore's blood instead. Bring him. Bella, punish those idiot children."

Ghastly bolts of orange light followed the Dark Lord's words immediately. Screams of nerve-rending pain immediately followed the bolts. The Dark Lord let it continue for a few minutes as McNair maneuvered Dumbledore's unconscious - and now twisted - form into place for the ritual. When Dumbledore hung from the winged reaper monument and McNair bowed to the Dark Lord, Voldemort commanded silence. Bella dropped the Cruciatus curses from the indiscreet teens at once. She then had to cast silence over them to stop their blubbering.

"Glad to see I'm not the only one embarrassed by progeny." Parkinson whispered from his left. "Care to wager there's more where that came from when those boys get home?"

"I hope that's rhetorical and you don't take me for that kind of sucker." Corban whispered back.

A soft chuckle was his only answer.

Of course it had been both rhetorical and a test of his faculties. That was how arseholes like Parkinson worked. If you weren't savvy enough to realize they were insulting you, then you deserved it. Wanker.

McNair chanted something as he threw things into a huge cauldron - probably size twelve or larger - but Corban couldn't quite hear what he was saying. At least the wanker kept his voice down and didn't call the Dark Lord's attention on them.

"You have any children yet, Yaxley?" Parkinson whispered.

"Trianda's seven." He whispered back. With any luck in a few short weeks his little girl would be a noble and Corban would visit Parkinson's grave - and piss on it. "What was it you were saying before about doing it right this time?"

Parkinson chuckled softly again. "I chose a lady of impeccable breeding this time. Practically a dark princess herself. I fed her a fertility potion and had quite the afternoon. The poor thing was so starved she eagerly did things you couldn't pay a whore to do."

Corban tacked on one more reason to put Lord Classy in the ground.

"She _enjoyed it_ , too. Really a bloody waste of breeding, if you ask me. I'm thinking I might have to make her a regular thing, if I can secure the right resources."

"Careful Parkinson, you sound like you're in love." He whispered back derisively.

Parkinson treated him to a dismissive snort. "A fool turns away opportunity when it knocks. The best part of the whole thing is I won't have to lift a finger or shuffle a knut. She thinks it was her husband!"

He fed a fertility potion to and bedded another man's _wife_?! He _boasted_ about the filthy things he'd made her do and that she'd _enjoyed_ it?! Corban took it back. He was going to kill Parkinson here and now.

"I don't suppose you'll give me a hint who this delightful morsel is?" He whispered.

Parkinson said nothing.

"No? Nothing at all?"

Only silence answered him. Out at the ritual place, Dumbledore whimpered in pain as McNair cut him.

"Parkinson?"

Nothing.

An explosion of steam and thunder came from the ritual then, and drew his attention.

A naked, sexless, noseless body stood out of the cauldron and spread its arms. The ghost of satisfaction kissed its lips, and it's whispered command was sibilant and uncannily loud.

"Robe me."

The Dark Lord was reborn.

It caused Corban feelings of anticipation, but also of anxiety. He knew the Dark Lord's return was vital to his own plans for his future and for the good of Britain as a whole, but he couldn't help feeling that he had gone from herding kneazles to herding dragons.

He took a deep breath and let it out. It didn't matter, really. The thing was done. The Dark Lord was restored. What would happen was what would happen.

He turned his attention back to Parkinson, who had been uncharacteristically quiet.

"Parkinson!"

Corban reached down to where Parkinson's feet made impressions in the grass and waved his hand around, but encountered only air.

He felt the spell wash over him as he stood again. It hit him square in the back.

His last conscious thought was "That figures."

  
  


* * *

  
  


Harry watched Tom get reborn from his perch on top of the reaper next to Dumbledore. The old man had already been through the wringer, he hadn't expected that. Apparently Dumbledore had earned some grudges from the Death Eaters. His right wrist was twisted at a bad angle and very definitely broken. It had started to swell as he had no choice but to let it hang down in front of him, and his fingertips began to turn purple. The old man's left knee had the same treatment and looked like a basketball hidden under his robe.

It was cruelty for its own sake to treat the old man like that, and Harry found it disgusting. Dumbledore had earned his death by perverting the natural process and imprisoning Fawkes, but that would be quick and clean the way it should be. Unfortunately there wasn't anything Harry could do about the cruelty Dumbledore suffered for the moment, but as he thought about it, he realized he probably wouldn't even if he could. He made Sirius suffer for twelve years out of sheer neglect, same as Hermione's parents had done to her. No, Dumbledore had earned this too, and more besides.

He turned his attention back to Riddle. With his eyes changed, he saw that the number of Disillusioned Death Eaters had dwindled considerably, but there was still a large group of them. With Riddle reborn and growing accustomed to his new form, it was time for Harry to play his part.

Riddle stood next to the empty, steaming cauldron he'd been reborn from and chatted quietly to Bellatrix Lestrange and Walden McNair as they discussed what to do with Dumbledore, but he was not theirs to claim.

"Is that Bellatrix Lestrange? Wow, you look worse than I'd heard. I know some people who want very much to kill you."

The instant he started talking, Voldemort motioned Lestrange and McNair to silence while he looked around for Harry.

"Please my Lord?" Bellatrix asked in a plaintive voice.

Tom assumed his mantle of false generosity and gave her the mockery he called a smile. "Very well. Hunt him and bring him to me, Bella."

Bella's smile, on the other hand, was genuine and hungry. She flashed her teeth at him and tore away into the tombstones to look for him. Harry watched her disillusion herself and pick her way quickly around the larger monuments.

Spellfire hit Bella in the side of her head and she flipped sideways through the air to fall face-first onto a wedgestone. Harry winced at that. Her body floated silently away toward the rear of the shack that Tom and Walden still stood in front of.

"You know she won't be able to find me." Harry said. "You know it's to be you and I."

McNair, strung out with the tension of caring for Tom and losing his hand to the ritual - probably coupled with blood loss - lost his head and forgot his place.

"Show yourself!" He shouted. "Come out where I can cut you to pieces!" Walden tried to heft his axe, but it was a two-handed weapon and he was a one-handed man. He did his best though, and carried it threateningly as he dashed around behind the Reaper monument where he obviously thought Harry was hiding. As soon as he was out of Tom's sight, Harry hopped down and stunned him from behind.

Tom was not at all surprised when Harry walked out from behind the statue.

"Ah, Mister Potter. At last. I have _so_ looked forward to meeting you again." Voldemort sneered in a genteel fashion. He clearly meant it to be a malevolent mockery of warm and welcoming, but Harry had memories of little Mister Riddle practicing that very thing on the other students at Hogwarts.

Harry bowed slightly. "As I have looked forward to meeting you again, Mister Riddle."

The noseless snakeface darkened, and Harry would have called it a scowl on any other face, but on Tom there was no actual movement, his eyes simply burned with a brighter hatred.

"I see the old fool has told you all about me."

"In a manner of speaking." Harry replied, "It wasn't willingly."

Tom stood more upright, and Harry took that as a shocked expression. "I find that both amusing and impressive, Mister Potter. Are you sure you wouldn't rather join me than fight me?"

"That's not something I'd considered, honestly. What would I get for it?" Harry lowered his wand.

A tiny smile spread itself across Tom's thin lips. "How does Duke of Scotland sound?"

Harry lowered his face and looked at the ground while he shook his head, then looked back to Tom. "No, sorry." Harry waved a hand at the bound and unconscious Dumbledore. "I assume you already know that this sack of shit murdered my wife, so you should know she's the only thing I really want. If you can't bring her back, then I'd be just as far along to kill both of you before you get in my way."

Tom shrugged. It was no loss. "I was lying anyway. _Avada Kedavra_!" Tom sent the hate-filled spell almost as an afterthought.

Harry watched it come and calmly took a step to the side. He swivelled his body like a swinging cafe door opening, and Tom's spell sailed past Harry to explode one of the tombstones of Tom's ancestors.

"That's disappointing, if I'm honest. Dumbledore thinks very highly of you - Tenacious, cunning, creative... That was boring and predictable." Harry shook his head sadly. "I don't see this fight going your way now, I'm sorry."

Tom flicked his wand at Harry, and another Killing curse sped toward him, faster this time. Harry sidestepped in the other direction.

Harry sighed. "Would you care to try a third? Maybe you'll get lucky?"

Tom's eyes burned brighter again. No-one had ever _taunted_ him before. He dropped all pretense of civility and he cast three in rapid succession - one at Harry, one to his left, and one to his right.

Harry dropped to his knees and bent backward to watch the three deadly green bolts soar above him unimpeded. He flexed his thighs and resumed a standing position.

"Better. At least you're methodical and capable of learning. My turn now." He cast _Expelliarmus_ to either side of Tom, while he reached out wandlessly and turned the earth beneath Tom liquid.

Tom watched Harry's wand carefully, and didn't bother to dodge either of his spells, as he could see neither would hit him. He prepared to dodge the third that never came, which is exactly what Harry wanted. The ground liquefied beneath Tom all at once, and he sank into it up to his neck before it solidified again. Harry darted forward to crouch directly in front of him, with his wand pointed into Tom's left eye.

"I did just want you dead. Now you're going to suffer for years." Tom hissed at him.

"Doubt it." Harry replied, and drove a spike of his Will through Tom's mental defenses. Just like Dumbledore, Harry pierced Tom's mind with ease. Despite having excellent defenses, both men had been dominant for so long that their wills had ceased to gain strength. When nobody dared challenge you for decades, what reason was there to train? Their arrogance was their downfall.

A flood of putrid fear washed through Harry as Tom's inner self was opened. That fear gave birth to the hatred that consumed Tom. It drove everything he did, from making his horcruxes to his need - and plan - to destroy every single pureblood family. Dumbledore thought Tom was their champion, that Tom's own pureblood mania drove his actions, but he couldn't be more wrong. Tom had learned to hate the purebloods during his time at Hogwarts. Their arrogance, their wealth, their untouchability. He used their beliefs against them, and death was the only thing that waited for them under his rule. It was his revenge for the slights of their parents and grandparents.

Harry staggered backward under the onslaught of Tom's memories, but managed to stuff them all in the mental box he had prepared for them.

Tom screamed in rage and Harry bounded away again. Harry ran to the far side of the cemetery and hid behind a tombstone while he sifted through Tom's memories for the information he needed.

Tom clearly struggled with being trapped in the dirt, Harry could distantly hear him spitting curses as he used magic to vanish the dirt around him. Then Tom's low, hate-filled whisper reverberated around the graveyard.

"FIND POTTER." He commanded. "BRING HIM TO ME."

Harry smiled to himself and continued to sift through Tom's life. That order wouldn't help Tom at all.

It took two and a half minutes for Tom to get impatient enough to look for Harry himself, and that was ample time for Harry to find what he needed. He relayed the information he'd sought, and stood up from his hiding place with a smile.

Tom sent a barrage of spells toward him, and forced him to dodge and jump and hide behind tombstones.

"Why prolong the inevitable, Potter? Your wife is dead, why fight? I'll do you a favor and send you to join her."

"Is that why you're so afraid of death, Tom?" Harry shot back, "You're just really afraid to have to talk to your grandfather again? Not that I blame you, of course. He was a real piece of shit."

Four spells immediately fired at him - one directly at him, one to either side, and one toward his knees. After his taunting, Tom had learned. Harry was forced to dive and roll away, though a cutting curse nicked him as he regained his feet.

Harry cried out in pain and held his right shoulder with his left hand. He barely managed to get a shield up in time to deflect the next cutting curse that slashed toward him, and the next, but Harry was hammered and off-balance as he struggled to defend himself.

Tom fired multiple cutting curses at once, and Harry knew he couldn't defend against them all. He managed to dodge or block all but one, but that one was the difference. He felt the spell sizzle across the meat of his thigh, and he cried out in pain again.

"A valiant effort boy, but you are decades too early to stand against _me_." Tom hissed with sadistic, arrogant glee. He fired several bonebreaker curses at Harry, and Harry knew those would be too much for a simple shield spell. He dropped the pretense and dove for cover behind a tombstone, which exploded as soon as he did. The force of it threw him forward into another tombstone, and Harry managed to levitate that one between himself and Tom, just in time for that one to explode too.

Harry cried out again and panted with effort. He still crawled away from Tom as Tom stalked toward him. Harry crawled toward another tombstone, but it was too far away. He'd never make it.

Tom blew that one up anyway. He exploded all the tombstones around Harry so that there was no cover to get to. He was exposed, open, and on his arse while he tried to defend himself. Harry knew the fight was already over.

Tom smiled then, as though Victory had just kissed his brow.

"A futile effort, Potter." Tom stood over him, just out of reach. "Your arrogance, your acrobatics, they are all for naught. Admit it, boy. You are outclassed. You are beaten."

Harry's terrified expression dropped away, and he began to laugh.

Tom's victorious smile fell from his lips and he cocked his head to the side as though curious. "It matters not." He whispered, as though he'd waged some internal debate and that was the answer. He raised his wand and pointed it at Harry. "Now you will understand the depths of my displeasure." Tom's voice was thick with anticipation.

Harry gave a nod toward Tom. Tom's wand flew from his fingers into the darkened twilight, and exploded into a thousand tiny shards.

Tom's face twisted and his eyes fairly glowed with rage.

Harry stood and brushed himself off with a small smile. "Oh Tom. Do you listen to yourself?" He shook his head sadly. "You really need to get out more."

Harry put his own wand away. "I thought Slytherins were practiced in the art of deception, but you don't seem to be able to recognize it. This whole thing has been a performance, Tom. A show for your benefit." Harry walked up to Tom and lifted him from the ground by his throat.

Tom's red eyes went wide and he struggled. He kicked and punched Harry for all he was worth, but with so little exercise and physical competence, he had no hope of actually hurting Harry, let alone getting free from him. Once Tom had realized the pointlessness of his struggle, he calmed and held onto Harry's arm so that he could breathe.

Harry carried Tom to the small shack and opened the door. The entire floor was piled with black robes and white or silver masks, still worn by his followers. Every single one of them lay there, stiff and unmoving. Even Nagini was draped over the back of a chair as blood trickled from her fangless mouth, and the snake's head had been twisted a hundred eighty degrees.

"You see, I was just the distraction Tom. My job was to keep all the attention on me so you wouldn't notice all your people being quietly removed."

Tom used all his strength to take a deep breath as he thrust his hand out, and Malfoy's cane flew into it. He drew a hidden wand from the top of it, and Disapparated - or tried to.

A huge, deep gong sounded throughout the entirety of Little Hangleton. Tom crashed down through the roof at almost the same instant and landed on the pile of his followers. The roof left scrapes all over the back and sides of his head that began to ooze blood, and his eyes looked around but Harry could tell there was no sense in them. He knew that feeling from having his bell rung by Hermione during their boxing training. The memory put a smile on his face.

He missed her terribly.

Harry took the opportunity to retrieve Malfoy's hidden cane wand and snap it before Tom woke fully.

Tom groaned when he came around, and looked up at Harry.

"Honestly, Tom. It's like you think you're so smart that nobody else can be smart as well. As though we couldn't predict you'd run as soon as you saw you were at a disadvantage. A classically Slytherin trait." Harry shook his head. "I borrowed a page from your own book, and made sure no-one could escape."

Harry leaned over the stiff forms of Crabbe and Goyle as they lay beside their fathers, and looked Tom in his eyes.

"You think you've won." Tom sneered unsteadily.

"Oh I have, Tom. I have. Before we finish up though, I have two things for you - a parting gift and a parting word. The gift is first." Harry breathed blazing white and azure flame at three of the four walls of the shack.

Tom stared at him dumbfounded, his air of menacing control evaporated utterly.

"There. I've done most of your work for you, that's your gift."

Tom narrowed his eyes at Harry. "What's the word then? I'll be sure to use it to torment you as I take everything precious to you when I return." Tom spat on Harry's Tournament robes.

Harry just shook his head. "You're still underestimating me. Very disappointing. Your word, Tom, is _Convolnero_."

Harry's piercing charm struck Tom in the center of his forehead and Tom's eyes crossed as the contents of his skull slowly dribbled onto McNair's Death Eater outfit.

" _Diffindo_." Harry cut Riddle's head off cleanly. It was distasteful, but he was fairly certain he'd need it as evidence. The Ministry was particular about that sort of thing.

Harry stepped off the pile of soon-to-be Ex-Death Eaters, and closed and sealed the shack door behind him.

"I hope we got who they all were under their masks?" He asked out loud.

A long-suffering sigh was his answer.

"Yes, okay. Of course I don't think you'd neglect that little detail, but you'd ask if you were in my position, just to be sure."

Hermione materialized in front of him and draped her arms around his neck.

"Yes, but I'm sure you'd take the opportunity to tease me then as well." She smiled, and kissed him soundly.

"Mmm." Harry moaned into her lips. He pulled her into him by her hips, and her arms tightened around his neck while they snogged.

After a long moment they broke the kiss, well aware they were in front of a burning shack and not even alone.

"That's better." He rested his forehead against hers. "I missed you so much. Being without you sucks." He pouted.

She smiled back at him. "Never again. It's cottage in the forest time now. We're going to go find Father and take him back to Mother, and spend the rest of the summer hunting and snogging and cuddling. Well, after we clean up."

Harry sighed. "Alright, let's get the cleaning done. The sooner we can leave, the better. Thank you for all your hard work, Hermione. I promise I'll do my best to make it up to you."

She squeezed his hand. "It was what needed to be done. We did it together."

"We both know you did the lion's share." Harry insisted.

"The hardest part of the whole thing was watching him cast killing curses at you and _not_ destroying him instantly. _That_ kind of thing is never happening again, I'll tell you that much. My heart is still hammering."

"Sorry. Won't happen again if I can help it." Harry wrapped his arms around her gently and they squeezed each other for a brief moment before they separated.

"Dumbledore first, then I'm stealing you for as long as I can before you have to go back." She said.

"Tomorrow I'll bring Luna and Nev and Daphne to the house and we can do the hard part. Once that's over we can go. I can't wait." He grinned at her. She grinned back, and they held hands as they crossed the distance to the winged reaper monument that Dumbledore dangled from. Harry gestured, and the bindings that held Dubledore in place cut clean through, and Dumbledore floated gently down to lay supine on the ground near the cauldron.

Hermione cast her nondetections again and vanished from sight. Harry flicked his wand at the old man, and Dumbledore's eyes fluttered open. He drew a breath and moaned in pain.

"Don't try to move, you were pretty badly cursed." Harry told him.

"What is... where?" Dumbledore tried to look around.

"You're in little Hangleton. Tom's family's ancestral cemetery. The altered Tri-Wizard cup brought us here." Harry explained.

"Tom... you know his name?" Dumbledore looked confused.

"Of course, professor. However, none of that is important to you anymore." Harry said with a calm certainty.

"Yes it _is_ important!" Dumbledore asserted. "How did you learn his name?"

Harry didn't answer, he merely waited for Dumbledore to realize he was in no position to dictate anything.

A minute ticked by in silence, and Harry realized he would be waiting a very long time. "Alright," Harry sighed, "I guess we'll just move along then. Fawkes!"

"Fawkes?" Dumbledore frowned in confusion.

The white phoenix flamed into existence in a burst of bright white flame. He clutched a large bowl in his talons. Harry reached out and took the bowl from him, then he perched on Harry's shoulder.

"A friend of mine found him in the trash after you tried to kill him. Hermione and I saved him, though we were not expecting him to change colour."

"A white phoenix..." Dumbledore's tone oozed reverence and no small amount of covetousness.

Fawkes warbled a song that told of decades of imprisonment and pain.

"As you can see, he's had some unflattering things to say about you. I don't suppose you'd care to explain _why_ you forcibly subjugated and bound him after he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with you?" Harry's anger made itself known in his voice and the pressure of his presence.

Dumbledore groaned in pain as he shifted and tried to rest more comfortably on his back. "I'll be happy to tell you the story once we're back at the castle. My injuries need tending."

"That's alright, professor." Harry said, "I'm fine without your lies."

Harry stroked Fawkes's head and waved his hand at Dumbledore. "He's all yours, mate."

Fawkes left Harry's shoulder and landed on Dumbledore's chest.

"Happy Burning Day, Fawkes." Harry said as he retreated a dozen paces.

Fawkes spread his wings and sang one single ragged note of pure triumph as his chest began to incandesce. Dumbledore's beard caught fire and burned back toward his chin just from the heat the bird radiated. Dumbledore’s eyes grew large and angry, and he tried to twist away from the bird, tried to bat Fawkes off him with his unbroken arm, but Fawkes had latched on to the old wizard’s ribs with his talons and would not be moved. Dumbledore grew frantic and began to screech in pain and terror, then all at once Fawkes glowed like a miniature star, and was gone.

Harry returned, and gently floated the pile of ashes out of the blackened, smoking hole that had been Dumbledore's chest cavity. Once the ashes were safely deposited into the bowl, Harry reached out and closed the old man's eyes as a final gesture.

"Just the hard part to go then." Hermione said from beside him. "Let's go home."

"How about you, Fawkes, you ready to go home?" He asked.

A tiny, high-pitched trill sang of wrongs redressed.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Kneescythe had opened the door to his office and set one foot into the hallway when pandemonium broke through the halls. Other office doors slammed open and other accounts managers stormed through the halls carrying weapons of all makes. Throatwire, the Crabbe accounts manager, spotted him about to leave and screamed a battle cry at him.

Apparently business for the day had not yet concluded.

He dropped his briefcase and pulled his axe from its sheath. Kneescythe met his charge with disdain and did not return his battlecry - he wasn't worth it. That's why he'd been saddled with the Crabbes. If he'd actually applied himself under Master Bloodfountain's tutelage he might have been handed a decent family to work for, but he was a slacker and it showed in his weaponwork as well as his accounting.

Throatwire tried to hack him in half vertically, but it was a clumsy, fully-committed swing. Kneescythe almost danced around him as the overhand swing missed and a loud CLANG told him Throatwire's sword had embedded itself into the granite floor. Kneescythe spun and sheared through both his kneejoints from behind as he struggled to free his sword from the stone. Throatwire screamed in pain and bled out onto the polished granite.

Another battle cry from behind him saw him step away from the growing pool of blood Throatwire supplied, and he met Eyeslice's cry with his own battlecry.

Eyeslice was no Throatwire.

He managed the Lestrange accounts and was one of the Top Five. Both of Kneescythe's cheeks, his left ear, and his right thigh bore long, shallow cuts that bled when he hacked Eyeslice's left leg off at the knee. Eyeslice didn't even grunt, he went down and attempted to stab his blade through Kneescythe's foot, but Kneescythe saw it coming in Eyesclice's posture and danced away. Once his blade was embedded in the stone, Eyeslice looked up at him and exposed his neck. Kneescythe took his head and kept it. He would return it to his widow so his family would know he was among the Honoured.

There were three more challenges after Eyeslice, but none that lasted more than a few seconds. Goretusk declined to challenge, and Kneescythe snorted at him in disgust. A generation ago, he would have quailed at the sight of the Malfoy accounts manager with a weapon in his hand, but Goretusk was not his father. Kneescythe grinned savagely at Goretusk as he walked past.

"Enjoy your time in the mines." He growled at the coward.

Challenges completed, he returned his axe to its sheath and returned his briefcase to his desk. No sooner had he done so than Spinegrip appeared in the doorway.

"Sir, you really need to see this." He said. He was part baffled, part excited, and part terrified. Kneescythe followed him to the edge of the vault shaft, and right away he spotted three vaults whose family crests had been altered. In each case another family crest had appeared in the Dominant position, signalling that the vault's owner had been bested by that of the Dominant crest. In each case he could see, the Dominant crest was Potter.

"How many?" Kneescythe asked, both giddy and grim with the amount of work he looked at.

"Twenty-four, sir. Not including Riddle."

"When did this happen?"

"Most of them appeared at the same time, ten minutes ago. Dumbledore changed just a minute ago."

"We'd better get started." Kneescythe paused to put a hand on Spinegrip's shoulder. "It's been a pleasure to have you as my apprentice. Keep working the way you have been. Mind your footwork. Mind your elbows. Practice daily. With twenty-four vacancies, I imagine there will be a call for advancement."

Spinegrip grinned with ears nearly vertical. He knew Kneescythe was saying he would put his name forward as ready to manage. "Thank you, sir. I will. Lots to be done before that." He fell into step behind Kneescythe as they headed back to the office.

It would be an all-nighter at the very least.

Spinegrip called for a healer first, and removed the blood from his teacher's clothing.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Amelia dropped into her favourite chair by the fireplace and ran her fingers across her brow. Another sleepless night, courtesy of Albus Dumbledore. She supposed it wasn't technically Dumbledore's fault, as she doubted he expected to be whisked away by surprise portkey, but the entire tournament as a whole - her last three sleepless nights - was definitely his fault.

In the end she'd had to return to the Ministry and file paperwork for missing persons. Even the Unspeakables hadn't been able to track where the portkey had taken Dumbledore and the MacFusty lad.

"I swear to Merlin, if MacFusty ends up dead too I'm pulling Susan out of there." She muttered.

"Auntie?" Susan's voice came from the hallway.

"Yes, in here." She replied. It was still early in the morning, but Susan had a crush on the boy who had disappeared. She probably hadn't been asleep. Amelia wasn't so old that she had forgotten what it was like to have a crush.

"Are you alright?" Susan asked. "Can I get you some tea?"

"Just tired, Susie. That would be lovely, thank you dear." Susan flashed a smile at her and retreated toward the kitchen. She returned with two cups of tea a few minutes later and handed her one.

"Thank you." Three... two... one...

"Any news on Duncan?" Susan asked as she sipped her tea.

Amelia hid a smile behind her teacup. "Sorry, Sue. The portkey was untrackable. Nobody knows where they went. I've had to file missing persons reports for both of them."

Susan's hands tightened around her cup. "I hope he's alright."

"So do I. Depending on what has happened and why, I might pull you out of that school and send you to Beauxbatons. I don't like the level of danger that's happening there. Death Eaters and children dying and you're too close to that."

"I wouldn't mind that, honestly." Susan replied happily. "I've made friends with a lot of the girls from Beauxbatons this year."

"Really? Well at least _something_ good has come of it. I'm -"

A house elf appeared in front of Amelia with a CRACK.

"Mistress, a visitor." He said with large eyes and a slight tremble to his voice.

Amelia frowned. "Who is it?"

The house elf blinked and stammered. "Uh. I... should ask." He popped away again.

"Is something wrong with Grimr?" Susan asked. "I've never seen him-"

Grimr reappeared. "Visitor says her name is Lammy Potter, Mistress. She has gifts for you from Harry Potter."

Susan frowned. "But Harry Potter is dead, everyone knows Harry Potter died..."

Amelia frowned as well, and took her wand out. "Show her in, Grimr." Anyone who claimed to be acting on behalf of a well-known dead child was either stupid or dangerous. The protections within the manor made it the best place to encounter either.

"Yes, Mistress." Grimr popped away again, and reappeared with... someone else. She was dressed in a fine white blouse and pleated navy skirt, and that was the extent of what Amelia recognized. She stood half again as tall as Grimr, and her hands, feet, and facial features were more proportional. Long, semi-pointed ears lay flat against the sides of her head. She carried a black leather case at her side.

"Good morning, Madam Bones." Lammy said with a small bow. "Thank you for agreeing to see me. My name is Lammy, I have been asked by my Head of house Lord Potter to deliver this evidence to you."

"There is no Lord Potter, the Potter line ended. You can imagine I'm somewhat skeptical regarding your statement."

Lammy smiled. "That is what Lord Potter said you would say. You are welcome to accompany me back to Potter Glen to ascertain the veracity of my claim yourself. For now, I have been asked to give you the evidence of last night's events."

Amelia sat forward in her chair. "Last night's events?"

"Yes, madam. The physical evidence I have to show you will help to explain, but I am hesitant to show it to the young lady due to its nature."

"I'm not that young." Susan stuck her chin out.

"What is the evidence? In general terms?" Amelia hid the internal smile at Susan's stubborn insistence.

"It is a severed head, madam."

"Susan, leave and close the door please." Amelia said immediately.

"Yeah, okay. I don't want to see that." Susan left the room and closed the door behind her.

"Why would Harry Potter send me a severed head - assuming what you say is true?" Amelia asked angrily.

"It belonged to Voldemort, madam." Lammy said as she opened her case.

Amelia stood. "You have Voldemort's head in that case, is that what you're -" She stopped talking as Lammy pulled a glass jar with a severed head in it from the case. The snake-featured noseless face from her nightmares stared back at her with hateful red eyes.

"The head has been placed under a stasis charm to prevent it decaying or leaking, madam."

Amelia sat down again all at once as her legs refused to keep her upright.

"The video will explain everything, madam. Would you like it set up in here?" Lammy placed the glass jar with the head in it on the side table.

"Video?" Amelia frowned.

"A muggle invention, madam. It records light, so you can be sure that what has been recorded did actually happen. It is also unfalsifiable."

"Voldemort's death was recorded?" She felt her eyebrows rise.

"Yes, madam. Lord Potter knew you would want to see everything for yourself, and video is more reliable than a memory." She pulled a large box out of her case - larger than should have fit in the case - and conjured a small table to set it on. She pulled another contraption from the case and attached it to the box by a cable. The front of the second thing looked a little bit like a camera. Lammy pointed it at Amelia, and she saw her own face appear on the first box.

"As you can see madam, it only records what can be seen. It is a camera that shows things as they happen."

"Yes, I can see that." Ameila looked on with interest.

"This is what was recorded last night." Lammy said, and the picture on the large box changed.

"That's Malfoy! He's in Death Eater garb!" She growled. "Snape, Nott, Parkinson, and _Yaxley_." She ground her teeth at seeing one of her senior Aurors exposed as an inner circle Death Eater. "What is happening?"

"It will all be explained as you watch, madam. The sound was recorded as well."

Amelia watched McNair care for a disgusting homonculus for a few minutes, until Dumbldore and MacFusty appeared in the cemetery. MacFusty dove away and ran while Dumbledore took a barrage of spellfire, from at least a dozen different wands, and went down almost immediately.

She watched the ritual that gave Voldemort a new body, watched MacFusty taunt and then fight Voldemort. She felt her heart pound when Voldemort advanced on a seemingly beaten MacFusty, and felt relief flood her when Voldemort's wand was taken from him. She frowned when MacFusty picked Voldemort up in one hand, and she twisted her hands together when the screen showed her all the Dark Marks and the faces they belonged to.

When the video ended with Voldemort's death, she relaxed into her chair as her mind whirled with the implications.

MacFusty was Potter.

He'd killed Voldemort and most if not all of the Death Eaters. Even better, they were caught with their Dark Marks out, in the presence of a resurrected Voldemort. That made them all traitors in the eyes of the law. Amelia found herself caught between mistrust and giddy giggles as she processed what had happened.

Then her mind spat out an unresolved question.

"What happened to Dumbledore?" She asked. "Is he alright?"

Lammy shook her head. "No, madam. Wizard Dumbledore was killed."

"That wasn't recorded. How did he die?" She frowned.

"Fawkes killed him, madam. I myself retrieved Fawkes's frozen corpse from the Hogwarts trash. Lord and Lady Potter saved his life. Fawkes had been bound against his will by Dumbledore for decades before Dumbledore attempted to murder him."

"You're joking. Dumbledore? Murder?"

"It's true, madam. Dumbledore was not the wizard everyone thought he was. It was he who engineered the deaths of the previous Lord and Lady Potter. It was he who gave the current Lord Potter to the muggle who nearly killed him."

"Those are serious claims against the most unassailable wizard in history. I hope you have proof." Amelia frowned at the... elf?

"That depends on whether you'd accept the word of a phoenix as proof, madam. You can talk to Fawkes yourself if you choose to accompany me to Potter Glen."

"I would have to consult with a phoenix expert before that. I don't know enough about them. I will definitely accompany you to Potter Glen, however." Amelia put her wand away and stood again. "Regardless what happens after now, I thank you for your information... er..."

"Lammy, madam Bones. You are most welcome." Lammy snapped her fingers and the video equipment flew into the case again. She picked up the case and looked to Amelia. "It would be more polite to travel from your Apparation point, and would spare your wards."

Amelia nodded, and frowned slightly with the unspoken alternative. Could the elf really punch through her wards? She would have to look into strengthening them. There were too many unknowns going on at once and it made her twitchy.

She walked out to the courtyard with Lammy in tow, and once they reached the Apparation point, Lammy held out her hand.

"I will have to take us, madam, you would not be able to reach Potter Glen otherwise."

Amelia just stuck her hand out as she braced herself for the horrible, nauseating squelch of side-along Apparation.

It never came.

There had been an almost pleasant pressure on every inch of her, and then they appeared an instant later in a beautiful, well-maintained garden.

"This way, madam. Lord Potter is expecting you."

Lammy led her into the manorhouse and into a small lounge attached to a study.

MacFusty sat there calmly next to the same girl she'd seen when they arrested the Crouches.

Amelia made an effort to distance the anger she still felt at seeing Yaxley among the Death Eaters, along with Lestrange, Crouch Junior, and Pettigrew, all of whom she knew to be in Azkaban. "Lord Potter I presume?" She asked.

Harry smiled and rose to shake her hand. "And Lady Potter. Please, call me Harry, madam Bones. Thank you for coming. Can I offer you tea? Breakfast?"

Amelia shook her head. "Thank you, but I'll settle for answers."

Harry nodded. "I have nothing to hide."

"Would you be willing to answer under Veritaserum?" She reached into her robe and took out her vial.

A look passed between the two teens.

"Certainly." Harry sat forward on the sofa.

Amelia dripped three drops of the potion into his mouth, and he smiled at her for a second until it took effect and his face went slack. Amelia retrieved her scroll and quill from their pocket in her robes, and set the dictaquill against the parchment.

"Test test test." She said, then made sure the quill was working. "Alright, Lord Potter -"

"Not so fast, Director." Hermione interrupted. "I'll need your oath that neither your knowledge of what you're about to learn nor the transcript of it is seen or known by anyone but you. We can discuss using pieces of it as evidence later, but I don't want my husband's private life known."

Amelia cast a glance at her. She was clearly more savvy than she let on. "Very well." Amelia took out her wand.

"Your word is enough, Director. A magical oath is not necessary, especially considering we may allow some of it out later."

Amelia looked at her again, re-calculating, then she nodded and put her wand away. "I swear that I will not share my knowledge of what I am about to learn with anyone, nor will anyone but me ever see the transcript of this interview." She raised an eyebrow at Hermione, who nodded in return.

"Thank you, Director Bones." She said, and relaxed beside Harry.

Amelia took a deep breath and tried to organize her thoughts. "I suppose it would be best to start at the beginning. What happened to you in Nineteen-eighty-one? Why was your death reported at all?"

Harry began to answer the question, but Hermione stopped him.

"You'll need to start before that to get the full story, Director. Ask him how Voldemort found his parents in the first place." She suggested.

Amelia asked the amended question, and over the course of the next three hours learned the depths of magical Britain's error in trusting Albus Dumbledore. She learned that Dumbledore had known all along that Harry wasn't dead. She learned how he had been raised by a dragon, and then by the MacFusty family. She learned how Dumbledore had deliberately fed his identity to Voldemort's followers. She learned Voldemort's real name and history, and that Dumbledore had known the entire time. She learned how Dumbledore had conspired to kill Hermione just to make Harry angry and point him at Voldemort in order to get him killed.

At the end of the three hours, Amelia felt dirty. She needed a shower both physically and mentally, to try and wash away the disgust. She felt sick at the things the two teens had been forced to deal with. She fed Harry the antidote to Veritaserum, and made sure her scroll was safely in its pocket in her robes. If even half that had happened to Susan - She stopped at that thought. It _had_ happened to Susan. Edgar had been part of Dumbledore's little brigade. She had to breathe deeply to prevent her gorge rising.

"Are you alright, Director?" Harry asked. She could see genuine concern in his eyes.

"Yes, I'm alright, thank you. Just realizing the full impact of Dumbledore's influence."

"We understand." Harry said with a rueful grin. "We also understand if you need to bring charges against us for killing however many people we killed last night. If I have to go to prison for it, that's a price I'm willing to accept."

Amelia turned to look at the boy. There weren't many grown adults who would say the same, and she didn't know any of them personally.

"We'll see. There's a lot to process legally. Don't leave the country, I'll likely want to talk to you again."

"We are leaving the country, actually. We're heading to the dragon preserve in Romania. If you just call for Lammy she can get us any message you want. We'll come to you straight away if that's what you need. Lammy?"

Lammy appeared beside Amelia. "Yes Mister Harry?"

"If Amelia calls for you, would you be willing to give us her message?"

Lamy smiled and bowed. "Of course, Mister Harry."

"Thank you, Lammy." Harry and Hermione said in unison. "We appreciate it." Hermione smiled at the elf before Lammy disappeared again.

"Is that satisfactory?" Harry asked Amelia.

"Best I can hope for, I suppose. Nobody else would come if I called. I imagine there are a fair number of widows at Gringott's right now withdrawing everything they can. I expect I won't be able to reach them for questioning."

"We have nothing to hide, Director." Hermione said. "I have a... mistrust.. of authority, but we believe in honesty. Also, you'll need this." Hermione handed her a fully filled-out form sixty-one J stroke two-four, notification of wrongful proclamation of death.

Amelia couldn't hide her smile at that. "Thank you both. I guess I will talk to you later, one way or another."

Lammy showed her to the Apparation point, and as they walked through the garden, she heard the most beautiful birdsong she ever had. It was pure joy, freedom, and righteous justice.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Neville stared at the words in the text, but he didn't see them. Instead, over and over he saw Harry's face the instant before he and Dumbledore disappeared. His mouth had smiled, his hand had waved, but his eyes had flashed sorrow the instant before they left, as if he had known what would happen and was saying goodbye.

The more he saw the image in his mind, the more he worried. The more he worried, the more he replayed the image.

The cold leaden feeling was tied to the thought that swirled around and flitted from place to place in his head, but that he denied access to. Neville refused to allow the thought that Harry had been taken to Voldemort to enter his mind. To host that thought was to lose all hope, and he refused. On the heels of that thought was the realization that Harry might have _wanted_ that, just to see Hermione again.

It was because of his absorption in his own thoughts that he didn't hear the footsteps as they approached him.

Neville was startled out of his reverie by a hand that clapped down on his shoulder. His head whipped up, and his eyes fell on the face he most wanted to see. He jerked up from his seat to his feet, uncaring that his chair scraped on the floor and then tipped over with a loud bang. He crushed Harry in a bear hug that lifted him off his feet.

"Good to see you too, big brother." Harry said with a smile when Neville let him down.

"You son of a witch." Neville whispered harshly. He wiped his eyes with the back of a finger because Harry's face had turned blurry. "What happened?! Where did you go?!"

"That's what I want to talk to you about. I want to explain everything, to let you and Luna and Daphne in on what's been happening and why I've had to be how I've been. Can you get Daphne and meet me by the front gates? I'll go get Luna."

Neville nodded and started to pack away his study materials. His heart hammered and his chest squeezed and he wanted to cry and scream with joy at the same time.

Daphne was in the Great Hall for an early breakfast when he found her. He ignored Davis's warning glare as he walked right up to Daphne and whispered in her ear. "Duncan wants to explain everything that's been going on. You were invited. I'm leaving, will you come with me?"

Daphne's response was to put her knife and fork down and stand up. She took his hand and they walked from the Great Hall to the front gates. Harry and Luna waited for them just outside the Wards. Luna looked both happy and impatient.

As soon as he and Daphne were outside the Wards as well, Harry held his hand out. "Grab on, we'll go to the Glen for a bit so I can explain in comfort. I'm really sorry to have worried any of you."

"You'd better be. Hurry up with the explaining so I can decide whether to throttle you or hug you." Luna glower-pouted. "Or hug you then throttle you." She added with a grin.

Harry smiled at that as they finished joining hands, and they appeared in the garden an instant later.

A white bird that fairly glowed in the morning sun circled around the gardens overhead, and sang a song that put joy in their hearts. It told them they were more than welcome, they were missed. It was happy to see them again.

Harry looked up at the bird with a smile. "He's a happy boy, what can I say? I'm happy to see you all again too."

He led them inside to the great room where snacks and refreshments had been laid out. Harry waved his arm at the sofas and chairs. "Get comfortable please, this is going to be a long story."

Neville sat on the sofa, and Daphne sat next to him but snuggled into his side. Luna sat in a chair at the end of the sofa. Harry waited until they were settled.

He took a deep breath and let it out as he looked at each of them. "The first thing I have to say is that I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I've been lying to you all for months - not in anything I've said, but with my actions. I'll explain why it was necessary, but it really hurt to do and I know it hurt you as well, and for that I'm truly sorry."

Luna cocked her head at him, clearly deep in thought.

Harry held out his hand to his side, and Hermione materialized out of thin air to hold his hand. "I'm sorry." She said in a small voice, her shoulders raised defensively.

A Luna missile slammed into Hermione. "Please tell me it's really you!" She sobbed as she clung to Hermione. "Tell me this isn't a dream!"

"It's me." Hermione smiled while tears rolled down her cheeks. "It's me. I'm so sorry."

Months. Months Harry must have known she wasn't dead. They probably planned her death before it even happened. Four entire months while he and Daphne and Luna stewed in their grief. Harry was right, he'd lied to them. They had picked him up bodily to take him to Hermione's funeral while he _acted_ like a zombie.

Daphne stood and crossed the space toward Hermione hesitantly, and he stood after her. Hermione opened her arms to hug Daphne.

Neville stood and punched Harry in the mouth.

"Four months!" He shouted. "Four months we've been hollowed out inside, and _you fucking knew_!"

Harry put his hand to his cheek, and his shoulders slumped while he nodded. "I did. I deserved that, I'm sorry Nev. We had to deceive you in order to deceive Dumbledore and by extension Voldemort."

"Dumbledore is in contact with Voldemort?" Neville realized his fists were both clenched, and consciously relaxed them. "Is that what you're saying?" He had visions of the things he'd feared when Harry was taken from the stage.

"Was, yes. We killed Voldemort last night." Hermione said quietly. Neville noticed that she was tensed as though to attack him, and Luna was braced against her to hold her back.

"You did what?" Daphne asked softly. "Tell me I just heard that correctly."

"That's the why of it." Harry said. ""I tried to give you some kind of comfort when I talked to you at the lake, but it's just like I explained then, if we told you Hermione wasn't dead, you would have acted differently. Dumbledore would have noticed. He watched all of you. I know you've been fantastic with my other secret, both of you, but this wasn't a matter of trust. We trust both of you, and you've proven it's not misplaced. If you'd known, it would have shown. Nobody can play a part all the time."

Harry's eyes flicked to Daphne then, so he turned his head to look at her too. It was obvious the words "What other secret?" were on the tip of her tongue, but she kept her mouth closed. It would have been rude to ask, no matter how much she wanted to know. Neville's heart smiled a little when he realized.

Harry must have realized it too, because he put a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "Relax, Hermione. Neville has every right to be angry, and I did deserve to get punched. It's okay."

Hermione snorted through her nose and frowned her disapproval as she muttered "Boys."

Harry turned to Daphne. "The other secret they know is the name I was born with - Harry Potter. Welcome to Potter Glen." He smiled at Daphne.

"Harry Potter..." She repeated in a whisper. She looked around the great room, and sighed. "I should have known. The heraldry is different from the last time I was here. The Potter crest is right there. You don't have to worry, I won't tell anyone." She said.

Hermione wrapped Daphne in a hug. "It's okay, Daphne. Nobody is hunting us anymore. It will come out soon, but even if it wasn't okay you've proven yourself a friend."

"You really killed Vold -" The word caught in her throat and she didn't finish it, but the question hung in her eyes just the same.

Hermione nodded. "We really did. We gave his head to Amelia Bones this morning."

As the anger drained out of him and he realized the full scope of what Harry and Hermione had been up against, Neville felt himself grow warm in his face. He turned to Harry.

"Sorry, Harry." He said sheepishly. "I just... I was only looking at what we went through, but it must have been worse for you. Sorry."

Harry smiled and wrapped him in a quick hug. "You had every right, like I said."

Neville felt better to know that things were still good between them, and resumed his seat on the sofa. "I should have used my brain first anyway, sorry. Can we still get the explanation? I'm dying to know how all this happened, now that I know what it was about." He said after he was seated.

Luna refused to let go of Hermione, so they sat on the second sofa while Harry took Luna's place in the chair.

Harry launched into the tale first. He started with how Dumbledore had his parents murdered because of a prophecy and stuck him with his aunt and uncle. He went over his life with the black dragons, and Daphne asked all the same questions he and Luna had when Harry had told them the first time, and Hermione even let Daphne put her head on Harry's chest to hear his two heartbeats. Harry claimed they both belonged to Hermione, after all. Smooth bastard.

Hermione took over then and explained that Harry had gone to the MacFusty farm at Mother's urging and had been raised by them to live in human society, though his behaviour was also based in outdated social etiquette books from the MacMillan library. She clearly didn't mind.

Harry took over again and detailed their meeting with Sirius and the Weasleys, and how that had been the point when he'd learned of the whispers about Voldemort's immortality. He handed the explanation back to Hermione when he got to their meeting with Dumbledore, and she told them how they'd learned everything that Dumbledore had done to Harry and Sirius and Harry's parents, and about the true nature of Voldemort and the things he had done to defy death. That had also been where they had discovered what had happened to Harry as a baby.

Harry described his visceral need to kill Dumbledore for his plan to murder Hermione, and how they had come to the conclusion that the best course of action for them would be to let him kill her. To let him think his plan was working, but execute their own plan in the background. To that end, Harry had Legilimensed Snape for a list of Death Eaters he knew, and after her 'death' Hermione had retired to the Glen to seek them out and read their minds for knowledge of what Voldemort - Riddle - was up to.

“Wait, wait.” Neville stopped him. “That’s great and all, but none of that explains why you aren’t dead.” He looked to Hermione.

"Harry and I prepared a transfigured tree trunk." Hermione explained, "Took us almost two weeks, but you saw it. It looked and felt real. Creeped both of us out, too. When Dumbledore hit me from behind with a stunner in the hallway, I played along until he put me in a bed in the hospital wing. I in turn hit him with a stasis charm, then replaced myself with the fake me, made myself invisible and he never knew any different. “

“You just _shrugged off_ a stunner from _Dumbledore_?” Daphne’s eyebrows rose.

“I’m part _dragon_ , Daphne. You could hit me with stunners all day and it would just get annoying.” Hermione smiled.

“Oh.” She smiled back, but her lips were pressed a little too firmly together.

Hermione described then how she’d used the information that Wolly and Krolly had brought her to find and collect Riddle’s horcruxes.

“How did you get in there?” Neville asked. “Malfoy Manor has Wards almost as strong as Longbottom Hall.”

Hermione looked vaguely queasy. “We learned thanks to Wolly that Parkinson had plans to… breed… Lady Malfoy. I followed him and slipped in through the Wards at the same time he breached them. After that, it was just a conversation with Polly’s new friend Dobby.”

“Gross.” Luna scrunched up her nose. “Genius, but… blech.”

Hermione nodded and squeezed Luna again as she and Harry went on to describe the events of the previous evening after Harry had attained the Tri-Wizard cup. They had known of Voldemort's ambush, and told how Harry had avoided it but left Dumbledore to take the brunt. Hermione described how satisfying it was to take down the Death Eaters single-handedly and film who they were under the masks, though it had stopped being satisfying when Harry had stepped in and started keeping Riddle's attention. She'd had to deliberately not look at Riddle firing killing curses at Harry and just trust Harry while she finished her part of the job. She did take particular joy in describing the face Riddle made when she took his wand away from him and blasted it to matchsticks.

Harry ended the tale with Tom's death and Dumbledore's reward for imprisoning Fawkes. Daphne and Luna looked both flushed and amazed at what they'd been told, but Neville was struck by Voldemort's end.

"I love the irony." He said. Daphne looked at him quizzically.

"Of?" Hermione prompted.

"Voldemort's end.” Neville explained, “He ended up exactly where he would have been if he hadn't done any of the shit he did, only probably a hundred years _sooner_ , instead of later. By fleeing from death, he ran directly into it and nothing changed but the date. Ironic."

Harry laughed. "I hadn't thought of that! You're right except for one thing - He didn't own Little Hangleton anymore - we do. It ceded to me when I killed him the first time as a baby. It turns out Wages of..." He stopped and went white as a sheet. "Oh _no_." He looked at Hermione with wide eyes.

Hermione caught what he was saying and she too went white. "We need to talk to Kneescythe." She said in a worried whisper.

"Can we come?" Daphne and Luna asked in unison.

  
  



	19. Chapter 19

  
  


The doorbell rang.

Evelyn sighed and glared at the door. If it wasn't phonecalls it was letters, and now people at the goddamn door. Why couldn't everyone fuck off and let her rot in peace? it was bad enough Horatio had turned sweet and loving. She'd had to scream their shame in his face before he'd broken down and admitted his own feelings, and after that he'd changed. She didn't know why, or where his current demeanour had been hiding, but it felt long overdue. He was fifteen years too late with it, in any case.

She levered herself out of the overstuffed chair and jerked the door open with a few choice insults on her tongue, but they never left her mouth.

"That's not funny." She glared death at the impostor. "My baby is dead. I don't know what you did to look like her, but you can fuck off."

Hermione frowned. "Alright, fine. I knew this was a mistake, come on Harry."

The tall boy - she recognized him as ghost boy from the funeral, and from Christmas. He put a hand on the impostor's shoulder. "Just a minute, Hermione. I'm not going to leave until she understands. If she wants to keep acting like this after that, then fine." He said.

As though looking like her wasn't bad enough, they dared to use her name. He turned to face her.

"Your daughter single-handedly saved all of Britain two nights ago. We had to fake her death so that she could move in the shadows, and her efforts resulted in the deaths of the worst, most corrupt, most dangerous dark wizards in the last thousand years. Hermione is a genuine, honest-to-Merlin hero. She came here to let you know she wasn't dead so that you would be spared any further heartache. You might have neglected her almost to death, but she still has some small measure of care for you. She has now discharged her familial responsibility, and I bid you good day."

The boy took the girl's hand and turned to go.

Faked her death?

"Wait." The words came out while she wasn't thinking. "Please."

That made them both stop and turn back to her.

"Are you... Is it really?" She fought desperately against the fluttering hope in her chest. Her vision went wavy and she felt hot liquid on her cheeks.

The girl looked stunned, unsure what to do or say. The boy pushed her gently toward the door with a hand on her back.

"I... I've never seen you cry before." the girl said softly. "Are you alright, mum?"

It _was_ Hermione. Nobody could mimic the faintly acidic way she said 'mum'. She reached out and grabbed her daughter before she even realized that she had, and crushed her to herself.

"My baby!" She sobbed unreservedly. "It's you, it's you, I'm so sorry honey, I'm so sorry!" Hermione's hands patted her back briefly, hesitantly, before she slowly wrapped her arms around her and held on. Evelyn felt her turn her head to look at the boy.

"You saw what I went through just imagining you were dead." He said.

Hermione tightened her arms then and actually hugged her. "Sorry mum." She said in a small voice. "I didn't know you cared."

That cut deeper than the sharpest knife. Even after so long wallowing in the guilt she knew she deserved, Hermione's genuine reaction cut her heart in twain.

"That's my fault." She replied through her sobs. "I never showed you that I love you so how could you know? I never even hugged you, and it was so wrong. So _wrong_. I saw you lying there _so very still_ and everything we'd never said, never done flashed in front of me. We'd never done _anything_ together. You don't even know me. I don't even know you! The most precious thing in the world and I turned you into a stranger! It's unforgivable, Hermione. I'm so sorry. Please don't leave."

Hermione's cheeks had water trails when she pulled back to look at her. Her beautiful girl. She turned to look at the boy again.

"We have time." He smiled back.

"We can stay for a bit, then." Hermione half-smiled, as though unsure whether it was something to smile about.

That was her fault too. She needed to make the most of the moment in case she was dreaming and Hermione was dead again when she woke.

She gestured for them to come inside as she made her way to the kitchen. "Come in then, I'll stick the kettle on. I want to hear all about -" She had to pause as her chest squeezed tears from her eyes again and made her focus just to breathe. "I never even asked you about school." The pain of her guilt threatened to overwhelm her, but she felt Hermione's strong hands as they held her up.

The kettle began to whistle then, and poured itself into the teapot while two teabags jumped in of their own accord. Magic! Hermione's pointed stare at the tea slacked, and she could feel the pressure of her daughter's presence recede as the boy picked up the teapot and retrieved teacups and saucers.

"Come on mum, you need to sit." Hermione guided her back to her chair. "You could use a shower, too. And open a window." She added as a whisper.

Evelyn had to laugh at that. "I suppose it has been a while. I... There didn't seem to be any point." She told her softly as despair cut through her mind again.

"Well." Hermione said with a harsh look, "Bathing regularly will make it much more likely that we'll visit, that's a fact."

Evelyn bit her lip to stop it trembling as fresh tears leaked out. "You will?"

"I won't lie, I'm a bit gobsmacked at the moment. I'm not really sure whether to be furious that you're fifteen years late or happy that you care at all. I have a lot of bad memories to reconcile, but if you finally want to be part of my life then I would be a poor person if I didn't at least give you the chance."

Harry smiled quietly to himself as he poured the tea and handed the women cups.

"Don't think I can't see you smiling, smug prat." Hermione accused.

Harry just raised his eyebrows in mock shock, as if to say "What, me?"

Hermione shot him a soft, loving look then, and gave the lie to her harshness. She was in love. Her baby loved this boy, and with every piece of her heart from the look of it. Evelyn had never looked at a man that way. Part of her was jealous of Hermione for it, but mostly she was ecstatically happy for her. She hoped Hermione always had cause to look at him that way.

"How did the two of you meet?" She asked as she took a sip of tea. "I'm sure I never asked."

The boy grinned at her while Hermione gave a small smile and blushed.

"I'll go take a walk while you two talk." The boy said and stood. He looked back at Hermione as he opened the door, and Hermione gave him a small nod. He smiled in return and left the house.

"It was just this past September, mum. The day school started." Hermione began.

* * *

  
  


The horntail blew fire into the air and roared at them, truncated roars more like barks. He didn't actually say anything, he was just being irascible and obstinate. He probably thought they would scream and run. Instead, they bowed their heads.

"Greetings. We seek Mother Langelet, do you know her?" Harry asked him.

The horntail froze in the middle of his aggressive display and went white around the muzzle. "Did you just _TALK_?" He asked incredulously.

"We apologize for entering your territory uninvited, we hoped to ask directions to Mother Langelet." Hermione added.

The horntail's jaw hung open while his tail crept between his legs. He lifted a claw and pointed a talon to their left while he gaped at them.

"Thank you!" Hermione said. They rose off the ground again and flew to their left over the trees. Luckily, Langelet was sunning herself on a rocky outcrop and they were able to see her from the air.

"May we enter your territory Mother Langelet?" Harry shouted down to her.

She swivelled her massive head to look up at them, and gave a warm chuff. "You may."

They landed next to her and bowed. "It is a pleasure to meet you once again, Mother Langelet." Hermione said.

"Rise, friends." She replied. "I see Hidden Colours has taught you the forms."

"The day after we met, actually." Hermione grinned. "I have been excited to be able to speak with another properly."

"You make your mothers proud, I am pleased by your respectful conversation." Langelet chuffed at them. "I am curious how the other pinkskins took your display of cunning, Hidden Colours."

Hermione chuckled.

"Not well, Mother Langelet. I was accused of dark magic because I was able to speak with you." Harry replied.

"How ridiculous!" Langelet snorted.

"We were able with the help of our friends to show exactly how ridiculous and childish that was, thankfully." Hermione added, "It was just one more instance of one attempting to manipulate many. He has since been dealt with."

Langelet blew a gout of fire into the sky. "Good! To suffer fools in the drive is to weaken the drive. Too often such leads to-"

"Langelet!" Another voice intruded as a horntail male landed next to Langelet. He was smaller and sleeker than Langelet, with fewer horns and tailspikes. "Kerges flies about spouting madness about two flying, talking pinkskins. Have you ever heard such..." He finally looked at Harry and Hermione as they stood quietly on Langelet's other side. "Obviously false..." he sat on his haunches and looked at Langelet.

"Ramenos, greet my friends properly. Meet Hidden Colours and...?" Langelet turned to look at Harry.

"Many Questions." Harry supplied.

"Hidden Colours and Many Questions of the Svurtr." Langelet turned back to look at the male. Ramenos had gone a little white around the muzzle, like the other male - probably Kerges - had. To his credit, Ramenos recovered quickly and dipped his head at them.

"Welcome." He said.

Harry and Hermione both bowed. "It is our pleasure to meet you, Ramenos Mate of Langelet." Hermione said.

Ramenos chuffed and blew a short flame from his nostrils. "Apologies for my rudeness. If you knew how strange..."

"We do." Hermione replied with a smile. "You offer no offense."

"You are gracious." Ramenos said with a return grin. "I have seen everything now."

Langelet bumped him with her head. "Do not insult our guests in the same breath they forgive your slights." She cautioned.

Ramenos nuzzled her neck. "You are right, of course. Apologies again, Svurtr. No disrespect intended.”

Hermione nodded. “We understand how strange it must be.” She turned to Langelet. “We were actually hoping you might provide some information if it’s not too much to ask?”

“If it is known, it is yours.” Langelet looked at Hermione.

“We seek to make a temporary nest while we search for Mother’s mate, but we would never nest in another’s territory. Where might we find a place unclaimed?”

Langelet brightened. “I am pleased you will stay, that we may speak at leisure. My mate will show you to the unclaimed space as payment for his unintended slights.”

Ramenos immediately hung his head at her words, but didn't dispute her.

"Thank you for your generosity." Harry bowed again.

"We hope to be good neighbours, and welcome advice on how we may be better neighbours in the future." Hermione bowed as well.

"You are pleasant company, thrice proven." Langelet said. "May your eggs outshine you."

"May your eggs outshine you." Hermione replied with a smile.

They Resonated and rose into the air, followed after a moment by Ramenos, once he got over his shock at seeing them fly without wings. They let him take the lead as they flew southwest at an easy, relaxed pace.

"I do not mean to pry," Ramenos said after a few minutes, "But how did you come to be? I cannot think any Svurtr would mate with a pinkskin."

"You're right there, that would never happen." Harry agreed. "Mother saved my life with her blood when I was a shardling, then I was challenged during my Declaration and took my challenger's heart. I changed Many Questions when we met, but the reasons why are a long story."

"That's... interesting. I hope to hear the tale eventually then." Ramenos stopped flying and hovered in place then. "This is the edge of claimed land, anything south from here is yours to claim."

"We will be happy to relate the tale over time." Hermione said. "We thank you for your gracious assistance, Ramenos of the Sarkany. We hope to meet you again soon."

Ramenos smiled and shook his head. "Incredible. You are most welcome, neighbours. Good hunting."

"Good hunting." Harry repeated with a smile.

Ramenos turned and flew back toward Langelet.

"At least we know we like the neighbours." Harry smiled at Hermione.

"Many Questions?" Hermione raised her eyebrows at him. "That's my name?"

Harry raised his eyebrows. "That's what Mother named you when we visited at Christmas. I thought you knew."

Hermione shook her head and sighed. "I must have missed it. Damn."

"To be fair, you did have a lot on your mind." Harry reached out to hold her hand. She smiled back at him and squeezed his hand.

"It does fit, I suppose." She sighed.

"So does Steadfast Friend, and Brightest Witch, and Smasher of Forests, and Perfect Beauty, and Wicked Snuggles, and Dances Across The Sky, and Vanquishes Evil."

"Hah!" Hermione scoffed. "Flatterer."

"It's all true and you know it." Harry floated behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She wrapped her own arms over his and revelled in the warm fuzzy feelings. "Come on, Flatters Outrageously, we have a spot to find, a home to build, food to find, and Wicked Snuggles to accomplish."

Harry chuckled and kissed her behind her ear. "I love you, Hermione. I'm so happy to finally be here with you."

She spun in his arms and kissed him deeply. "Why do you think I want to hurry up and get home and dinner finished?"

"You make an excellent point." He kissed her again tenderly and looked out over the forest while he thought about what might make a good spot to build.

"I want a spot near a river if we can manage it." She said.

"That narrows down the places to look then. There's a river over there, let's go have a peek." He spun away from her to catch her hand again, and they flew low over the trees to investigate and saw a wide, light blue ribbon of water weave its way through the forest. The banks of the river were all smooth water-rounded stones that formed a slope up to the forest floor.

They landed on the bank of smooth stones. The river was a quarter-kilometer across, but it didn't look very deep. It only went to dark blue in the very middle. Hermione looked around and nodded with a sigh.

"Mine." She said.

Harry chuckled. "I guess we'll build here then. I do like the view of the mountains from here."

"I'll get started on the house if you want to do the Wards?"

Harry nodded. "Deal." He turned and began to concentrate on the formation of the Wards, only to have his concentration broken by the thunder of dozens of trees crashing to the ground at once. He plucked his head out of the space between his shoulders and turned to see Hermione smile sheepishly at him.

"Sorry. That was a bit loud."

He chuckled and blew her a kiss as he went back to the Wards. He erected the muggle-repelling Ward first, in case Hermione wanted to move the river or flatten a mountain or something, and then moved on to the magical protections and privacy screens.

When he finished, there was a cozy two-storey A-frame log cabin in a clearing surrounded by cleanly sheared treestumps a foot high. A separate little shelter at one end of the porch held enough split wood to last the winter. Hermione stood on the second floor balcony that faced the mountains, and with a flourish of her wand created a small breakfast table for two.

"That looks great!" Harry called up to her.

She waved down to him. "Not finished yet, but it's getting there!"

The fireplace held a crackling fire and had a soft sofa in front of it flanked by two chairs. The bathroom held a working shower and an in-floor, river-stone-lined bathing pool in lieu of a tub. The kitchen was the size of their entire apartment at Hogwarts, with an eight-person dining table beyond. There was a back deck as well, with an above-ground version of the tub on the deck, and the water in it steamed in the cool air.

The staircase was polished oak, and he counted three guest bedrooms. He found Hermione in the master bedroom and held her from behind as she put the final touch on an archway formed by two living oak saplings.

"It must be six times the size it is on the outside." He said quietly. "It looks amazing in here."

"Glad you like it." She snuggled backward into him. "I've been thinking about it for months and months."

"It's brilliant. You're brilliant." He kissed her neck and she shivered. "Are you hungry?"

"Hmm peckish. It could wait -"

"Good." He plucked her wand from her hand and tossed it on a chair, then turned her and lifted her hair away from her neck to replace it with his lips and tongue.

"Oohhh Harry..." She moaned as her fingers slid upward though his hair.

They didn't get around to food until the sun had already set.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Colin stopped dead in his tracks.

She was _gorgeous_.

Her hair had grown out some, and softened the harshness of her jawline, which in turn lent a cuteness to the slightly upturned tip of her nose. It was her eyes though, that reached into his chest and turned him to goo. Their rich, dark hazel depths shone with a light that had never existed there before.

She smiled at him tentatively, as though afraid he wouldn't be glad to see her. He grinned back at her, though he could feel his face heat with it.

"Hi." He said. "You look great!"

She smiled for real at that. "You're full of shit, but thanks."

He laughed, and stepped closer, close enough to touch her, to kiss her. Her face flushed slightly and her lips parted. "Really. You look fantastic. I might be full of shit, but I'd never lie to you."

"Never?" She whispered.

"We're together, you and me. If you still want to be, I mean."

"I do."

"That means you and me against the world if need be. No lies, no secrets. Not between us."

"It's strange to be so vulnerable, so... naked... with another person." Her pupils dilated and her breaths came faster.

"Ahem." Colin's father cleared his throat loudly. "I remember what it was like to be young, but could you at least take it out of the doorway?"

He felt his face go fire engine red. "Sorry dad."

"Sorry." Pansy said as well, and reached out to peck him on the lips quickly before she stepped away.

"I was thrilled to get your letters. Made the rest of the year bearable." He told her quietly as they climbed the stairs toward their room. It still struck him as weird to _have_ stairs in the house, but it was an actual house and not a council flat. He'd known that his dad's new job paid a lot more than being a milkman did, but it was still posh in his mind.

"It felt good to have someone to talk to. Your dad has been teaching me a lot, and he's been patient with me while I was a bit of a... when I was less than pleasant. It's easy to see now where you get it from."

He had to chuckle at that. "it's true. Mum used to say he was too relaxed, thought he could do so much better than being a milkman, but he enjoyed it. Used to make her cross sometimes."

"She wasn't wrong... but then neither was he, if he enjoyed it. I like to cook."

He raised his eyebrows as a grin spread across his face. "You do? That's great!"

She blushed and smiled at the carpet. "I had no idea where food came from, until I was there watching your dad cook dinner every night. It looked like potions for kids, so I tried it. He helped, of course, but less and less. It's easy and fun, and you can eat the things you make. They _taste good_. It's weirdly satisfying."

"That's number one then." He said.

"Number one?"

"On the list of things you like to do."

She shook her head. "Number two. I don't know if it's because of the baby or what, but I'm so..." She bit her lip and twisted the hem of her jumper. "All the time! It's so frustrating! Would you mind if... could we...?"

Colin locked and sealed the door and silenced the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Pansy ran her fingers through his hair and kissed him softly, as though afraid he might run. He kissed her back and showed her he was where he wanted to be. That made her more comfortable, and she in turn showed him number one on her list.

She made them breakfast the next morning, and admitted to herself that she liked his quiet grin, especially knowing that she'd put it there.

They had finished eating and Colin looked through the newspaper at the jobs section when there was a sharp tap at the front window. A large, regal looking owl perched on the sill that wore a black hood with a gold symbol on it.

"Cool." Colin said as he rose to let the owl in.

"That's a Gringott's owl. What's it doing here?" Pansy's voice was both curious and afraid.

The owl stuck its leg out to Colin when he opened the window.

"For me?" He asked it.

"Krr." It replied. He fetched a bit of sausage from the scraps of breakfast for the owl, and removed the small package from its holder.

"Thanks!" He told it as it flew off again. He sat back down next to Pansy so she could read it as well, only to find it was a large envelope that had been shrunk to fit the owl's carrier. A quick trip to their room later, he tapped it with his wand and the package expanded to normal size. There were about twenty letters inside the package. Most of them were not folded, but there were two that were. Luckily, those two were labelled "Read First" and "Read Second".

"What is all this?" Pansy asked.

Colin shrugged. "Good question." He opened the envelope labelled "Read First.", and began to read its contents.

**Dear Lord Creevey,**

**Congratulations on your ennoblement, we at Gringott's hope you will prosper as the Earl of Westmoreland. Please find enclosed all the associated documentation and requisite forms to fill out, including designation of family members, Coat of Arms declaration, Lord's Ring options, Family Crest, and Living Will.**

**We hope that you will complete these forms and return them to Gringott's at your earliest convenience, as this will smooth the transition of assets.**

**We understand this may come as something of a shock, so please read the next letter I'm told will accompany this.**

**Congratulations,**

**Spinegrip, Creevey accounts manager.**

Pansy finished the letter a second behind him, and pawed through the large, imposing, official-looking documents on the table.

"It's true. Just as it said, these are the right forms." She whispered. "What did you do?"

Colin just looked at her while he wracked his brain for any reason for being granted a title. "I got my astronomy and flying O.W.L.s two years early... that couldn't have anything to do with it?"

Pansy pursed her lips and shook her head. "No."

"Okay, second letter then I guess." He picked up and opened the second letter.

**Hi Colin!**

**First off, let me apologize for springing this on you, we were kind of pressed for time when we were thinking of good people to hand titles to. They sprung it on us at the bank and since we thought just keeping twenty-whatever titles to ourselves would be both greedy and ridiculous, they wanted to know who we were giving them to. Turns out when you kill a dark lord and his maniac followers, the law says you get all their stuff - as if the doing of it wasn't enough of a pain!**

**The even worse news is that you're a member of the Wizengamot now - but on the bright side you can appoint a proxy to vote in your name, so that's not so bad. You'll be expected to take up your seat yourself when you're twenty-one, but after that you can just appoint a proxy again if you don't want to have to deal with it.**

**As well, they only meet a few times a year, so you can just go back to what you were doing in Australia if you didn't want to be bothered with it. Or do the proxy thing. There's also lands and monies and responsibilities and such, and we're sorry for saddling you with those, but hey at least you know some people in the same boat!**

**I expect you'll have loads or questions and some choice words for us, so don't hesitate, we'll help if we can, and you can punch me next time we see each other if you're super angry.**

**Sorry again,**

**Duncan and Hermione.**

"Merlin's flabby arse." Pansy breathed as she sat back in her chair heavily. "They killed Voldemort? Did I read that right?"

"And his followers. Can you think of another Dark Lord?"

She shook her head, a look of worry on her face.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

She set her lips in a thin line and frowned. "I know I'm disowned and it doesn't mean anything anymore, but I suspect my father was a Death Eater. I just wondered if he was dead now."

"Would you feel better if you knew?"

She sighed. "Maybe? On the one hand if he _is_ dead, then... I guess I'd be happy? I'd feel free, I think, and there wouldn't be any chance of him finding and hurting us or the baby."

"That sounds good to me. On the other hand?"

Her eyes went hard. "I wanted to do it myself."

"Well then I hope he is. I wouldn't want you to have to do that." He put his hand over hers and squeezed it lightly. "I thought about it too when I saw you in the hospital, but I would prefer to see you happy than vengeful. Killing is a terrible thing."

Her eyes softened then. She looked at him as though he were somewhat naive, but wrapped her arms around him anyway.

He smiled at her and ran his hand quickly over her baby bump. "I might know a way we can find out... if he chooses to answer. Wolly?" He called.

There was no reply. He shrugged and was about to say "Oh well", but there was a soft pop to his right instead.

"Hello again, Wizard Creevey." Wolly smiled.

Pansy stood up with a gasp. "What the magic are _you_?" She looked Wolly over from his crisp white shirt with its shiny gold medal to his navy cargo pants and sleek running shoes. Then she noticed the family crest on his breast. "Potter? You're a Potter elf? How can that be, the Potters are extinct."

"I am a Potter elf, Witch Creevey. Mister Harry says I belong to myself, but I am bonded to him and Missus Hermione, and proud to call myself their friend."

"It's nice to see you again, Wolly. Would you answer a question for me if you have time?" Colin asked.

Wolly smiled at him. "Certainly. I like to help if I can."

"I - we just wanted to know if Pansy's father is alive? I got a letter that says the followers of Vold- of the Dark Lord are dead, and Pansy thinks he might have been one."

"Wizard Parkinson is dead, yes. He was a Death Eater and died with the rest."

"Oh. Well good then, thanks Wolly." He smiled. Now she didn't need to worry about it. More importantly, he didn't have to go kill Pansy’s father himself just to be sure his family was safe.

"Did you just say _Hermione_?" Pansy asked pointedly.

"Yes." Wolly replied. "Hermione Potter, born Hermione Granger. Married to Duncan MacFusty, born Harry Potter."

Pansy sat down again limply.

"Wolly, did Dunc - er, Harry and Hermione kill Voldemort?"

"Yes." Wolly nodded.

"And some Death Eaters?"

Wolly shook his head. "No, not _some_ of them - _all_ of them, all at once. Missus stunned them one by one and Mister Harry burned the bad wizard and the rest with his fire breath."

"Fire breath?" Pansy's eyebrows reached for the ceiling.

Wolly nodded. "Missus Hermione breathes the most beautiful white and green flame."

"Merlin's balls..." Pansy whispered. "I almost... She would have... Merlin's balls."

Wolly looked around then and cocked his head as though listening. "Wizard Creevey has no help? No house elves?"

"Uh, no Wolly, no house elves."

Wolly looked at Pansy again - at her stomach specifically, then back to Colin. "You will need help. I know an elf who wants a good home." He vanished with a soft pop.

"An elf would be great, but..." Pansy started.

"But?" He asked.

"I was just getting to like doing things for myself." Pansy pouted.

"Nothing says you have to stop, you know. I can't wait for you to find more things you like to do. Once I find a job... Actually I think that might not even be possible now. I'm a Lord. Duncan - Harry Potter - made me a bloody Lord. I was worried enough I was gonna be a dad, how am I going to manage all this?" He put his head on the table and covered it with his arms.

"With help, of course.” Pansy answered as though it were obvious. “You'll need to visit Gringotts and talk to this Spinegrip, find out what's involved and what they expect from you. After that, one step at a time.”

“You're right.” Colin sighed, “It just seems so _huge_ , It's frightening.”

“Good. That's what you need me for then. I'll stay by your side and remind you that you're more capable than you think. I'll... I'll need you by my side to... to hold me.” Pansy's voice quavered and grew soft. “A lot. Being a mother actually scares the shit out of me."

He lifted his head then, his own woes suddenly immaterial. He pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. "We'll learn. We'll get better. You're going to be a great mum, you'll see."

Another soft pop happened next to them, and Colin wondered what could have happened to the poor elf Wolly brought them to make it so misshapen. It's already huge eyes went even wider as it looked at Pansy.

"Mistress? Mistress is alive! Alis doesn't kill Mistress!!"

"Alis?" Pansy hesitated for a moment, and Colin could see her eyes grow wet.

"Alis suffered greatly under your father, Witch Creevey, I would like to see her treated with kindness and respect and affection. Will you be capable of that or should I find her a new family?" Wolly looked at Pansy sternly.

Pansy looked back at Wolly and nodded. "I am... starting to understand. I would be grateful for your help, Alis. If you want to. I haven't been very nice to you before." Pansy got off his lap and knelt to hug Alis. "Thank you for everything you've already done for me. I'm sorry about how I was before."

Alis hugged her back joyfully. "Young Mistress bes wonderful while Mistress lives. Only nastybad father makes Mistresses hurt. Makes young Mistress hurt others. Alis bes happy to help young Mistress and youngest Master. Alis not bes sad elf nomores."

"Are you sure, Alis?" Wolly asked her.

Alis nodded hard enough to make her ears flap. "Alis bes happy."

Wolly put a hand on Alis's shoulder. "Good, that makes me happy."

Alis smiled at Wolly, then looked at Pansy almost fearfully. "Um... Mistress? It bes okay if Alis visits with Wolly sometimes? Mistress not bes shouty for slackings?"

Pansy laughed. "No, Alis. I'm not my father. You visit with Wolly whenever you want. Wolly is welcome here too." She looked back at Colin. "Is that okay?"

Colin grinned at her. "That's great. Wolly is always welcome here. Heck, any of his family are."

Pansy smiled back at him, then turned back to Alis. "I would also like you to teach me how to do things, is that okay? I want to know how to do things for myself. I found out I like to cook, so I will want to do that too. Maybe we can cook together?"

"Mistress cookings now?!" Alis laughed. "That bes fun! Alis can teachings all kinds of things. Mistress can bondings now?"

Pansy smiled at her and put her hand on Alis's head for a second, then Alis relaxed and sighed warmly.

"Bond feels warm now. Alis likes Mistress's bond." Alis hugged Pansy again.

"That makes me happy." Wolly said as he smiled at the two girls. "It was good to see you again, Lord and Lady Creevey. I should -"

"Could you - "Pansy interrupted him, "Sorry. Would you tell _Lady_ Hermione that..." She cleared her throat. "That I'm sorry for the way I treated her in school?"

Wolly thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Mister Harry says an apology is between two people. I will gladly take you there so that you can give her your apology yourself."

"I..." She looked back at him, and Colin could see the fear in her eyes. He couldn't tell what it was fear of, until he realized it would probably be the first apology she'd ever made.

"Can I come along, Wolly?" He asked.

Wolly nodded, so Colin put his hand on Pansy's shoulder. "I'll be right there with you, it'll be fine."

She let Alis go and stood up then. "Alright, let's go."

  
  


* * *

  
  


Waiatawai's multicoloured eyes formed swirling vortices, and she swung her head to look toward the front of the cabin. "Visitors have you." She sang. It had been a bit of an adjustment to get used to her accent and the way her speech was all back to front, but she had a lovely voice.

"Wonder who could find us out here?" Harry asked.

"Nobody." Hermione answered. "It would have to be one of the family bringing them in."

"Never a dull moment." Ramenos chuckled.

Wolly walked around the side of the cabin with two people in tow, but they both stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the company they already entertained.

"They look about ready to run. It makes me want to chase them." Langelet grinned.

"Be, leave them." Waiatawai sang. "Pinkskins AWWful taste. Offense I hope not to give."

Harry smiled and stepped toward the fire so they could see him, and waved them forward.

"No offense taken, Waiatawai. I'm sort of glad I taste awful." Hermione told her.

"Not to me you don't." Harry grinned.

Hermione blushed and swatted his arm. "We have _guests_!"

Langelet, Ramenos, and Waiatawai all blew stuttering flames of laughter, and the two pinkskins - close enough to the fire to be recognizable as Colin and Pansy - stopped in their tracks again and gawked at them in fear.

"What is _she_ doing here?!" Hermione hissed. Her brows went flat and her fingers curled.

Harry put his hand on her arm soothingly. "Let's find out before we bring out the torture implements, hm?"

It took a minute, but Colin and Pansy approached the circle of three dragons and two humans around a campfire, and they did so hand in hand. Both of them looked terrified.

"Welcome. Colin, Pansy, meet Waiatawai on your left, of the Tarakona." he said in English, then repeated himself in Dragon. Waiatawai dipped her head slightly and crooned musically at them. "She said it's nice to meet you." He translated for them.

"Uh." Colin said. "Nice to meet. Yeah." His eyes were the size of dinner plates.

Harry turned to Waiatawai. "They apologize for their rudeness, but they are stunned by your beauty."

Hermione gave him a look and he shrugged at her with a smile.

"On her left, Ramenos of the Sarkany, Mate of Langelet of the Sarkany on his left, my right." Harry finished the introductions.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Pansy said, and curtseyed.

Colin bowed almost in half.

Harry translated (with some slight embellishment) for the dragons, and a long moment of silence passed while the dragons smiled at the humans.

"It grows late." Langelet said finally, "We should hunt before sleep. Our thanks for your kind hospitality Many Questions, Hidden Colours."

"You are welcome always, gracious neighbours. Hunt well." Hermione replied with a small bow.

"As well should I fly." Waiatawai warbled. "Pinkskin business it is clear you have. Of thanks receive you many, in the songs will this night go."

"You are always welcome as well, Waiatawai. Thank you for your songs." Hermione bowed again. Harry waved, and Waiatawai waved in return before she too took to the air.

"Merlin's _pants_ I thought I'm going to die." Colin whooshed a breath out and sat on the ground as Waiatawai receded into the night.

"Take a minute, breathe deeply. It helps." Harry smiled at him.

Colin nodded back at Harry and breathed deeply. "Sorry...to interrupt...didn't know...it was night...or you had visitors."

"Ah. You'd be about seven hours ahead where you are. It was early morning?" Harry asked.

Colin nodded.

"What can we do for you?" Harry smiled.

"Actually..." Pansy answered, "We had a visit with Wolly and I asked him to bring us." She looked directly at Hermione, who had flat brows and glared at everything while pointedly _not_ looking at Pansy. "I asked him to tell you I was sorry for how I treated you in school, and he refused, but offered to bring us instead." Pansy took a deep breath and whooshed it out again. "I'm sorry for how I treated you. I toed the party line and was a good little Slytherin, and it turns out Longbottom was right, it was me who had a shitty attitude. I won't lie and say I didn't understand that it was hurtful, but I had to lose everything to understand how what I did to you feels, and I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I was such an utter cunt. Thank you for saving my life. I didn't deserve it. " Pansy's cheeks were reflective in the firelight as she finished her apology.

Hermione turned to look at her as she apologized, and Harry could see her search Pansy's eyes with her own. After a moment, Hermione gave a small nod.

Pansy wiped her cheeks with her sleeve. "Thank you for listening." She turned to Colin. "We can go now."

"I wanted to let you die because I hated you." Hermione admitted. "So I'm sorry for that. It looks like that person actually did die, though. I don't know who you are, so... Hi. I'm Hermione." She held her hand out to Pansy.

Pansy shook her hand as fresh tears streamed down her face. "Pansy. Just Pansy."

"Nice to meet you. Talking to dragons makes my throat dry, fancy a cup of tea?"

"Nice to meet you too, I'd love one, thank you." Pansy sniffed and smiled at her.

"I have to admit I'm curious what it's like to be pregnant as well, do you mind talking about it?" Hermione stole a glance backward at Harry.

"I would love to talk about it. I haven't had a real conversation... ever, I guess."

Hermione and Pansy went into the house, and left Colin and Harry to sit by the fire.

"Thanks for that." Colin said as he stared at the glass doors the girls had closed behind them.

"Hah. I thought you were going to scream at me for dumping lordship on you. It's going to be a massive pain. I'm not looking forward to it." Harry sighed.

Colin paled. "That's real."

"Yeah, that's real. Sorry."

"And you're really Harry Potter."

"Yes and no. Yes I was born Harry Potter. My birth parents were James and Lily Potter. Do I know who Harry Potter is or was supposed to be? Not a clue."

"Did you really kill Voldemort, whichever person you are?"

"Yeah, we really did. Disgusting, vile thing that he was. Not even the people who followed him were people anymore, really. Just people-shaped bags of hatred and entitlement and greed. Still makes me want a shower to think about it."

"Thank you. Whether you meant to or not, you saved me and Pansy and my family."

"Yes and no. The immediate threat might be gone, but it's going to be up to you and me and everyone else to make sure it doesn't happen again. It will be up to our efforts to change things and keep them the way they should be. That's why I gave away all the titles and everything. I would have controlled seventy percent of the Wizengamot seats otherwise. Nobody should have that kind of power, Dumbledore proved that, and he didn't even have half.."

"He did?" Colin frowned.

Harry sighed. "I forgot you don't know. Yes, Dumbledore was the reason my parents are dead. He wanted control of me because he heard a prophecy. He had my godfather put in Azkaban for a dozen years just to keep him away from me. He _knew_ Moody was a disguised Death Eater and let him know I was in the castle so he'd put my name in the goblet of fire. Dumbledore was a monster."

"Was?"

"He's dead too. He bound a phoenix against his will and kept him prisoner for decades. The bird killed him for it."

"Oh." Colin stared at the fire for a moment. "I guess don't piss off a phoenix."

Harry chuckled. "There are smarter things to do, certainly."

"I was worried about managing new things to do when I was already stressing over being a dad and getting a job and finishing school, but... thanks. For choosing me, I mean."

"Hermione and I are going to be studying Wizarding law and the Wizengamot specifically over the next few years. You're welcome to join in."

"Thank you again. That will make things easier."

The doors opened again and Hermione and Pansy rejoined them. Pansy walked up to Colin and put her hand out, and he held hers.

"Come on, we should go." She said. "It's after midnight here."

"Oh." Colin said, and stood beside her. "Sorry, I didn't know. I'd have waited til a decent hour otherwise."

Hermione went to stand beside Harry. "It's fine, we already had guests. Earlier is better next time though." She smiled.

Wolly appeared and waited beside Colin and Pansy.

Colin grinned. "See you next time then. Dunca - er, Harry. Hermione."

"Thank you." Pansy said with a smile.

Wolly popped away with Colin and Pansy.

"That was very nice of you, love." Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist and held her from behind as he swayed gently side to side.

"Hmmmm" She snuggled back into him. "She meant it. She took responsibility for her actions and she feels terrible. If I didn't at least give her a chance then I'd be the arse in that equation."

"I wouldn't blame you if you denied her though."

"If she can get past her upbringing, I can get past my hurt."

"I love you."

"And I love you. Now take me to bed, that visit ate into my snuggle time."

  
  


* * *

  
  


Augusta slammed the gavel onto its block three times.

Accordingly, quiet descended on the Assembly.

"Welcome to the August Session of the Wizengamot in the year Nineteen Ninety-Four. Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to welcome our new Lords and Ladies to the proceedings. This Assembly is more filled with occupied seats than it has been in generations. We look forward to working with you all toward a better, brighter Britain."

There were a few under-breath grumbles at that. Augusta ignored them. They could grumble all they liked, they knew what awaited them if they chose to act.

"Our first item on the docket for today is the authorization for the arrest and incarceration of one Harry James Potter, also known as Duncan MacFusty."

One of the new lords stood immediately.

"Yes, Lord...?"

"Fairgus MacFusty, Chief Warlock. I must recuse mesailf from this item, as it's a clair conflict of aintrest."

Augusta smiled and nodded at him. "Scribe, please note Lord MacFusty has recused himself due to conflict of interest."

"So noted." The scribe replied.

"I am quite interested to know the source of the request for the warrant on Lord Potter?" Sirius asked.

"I think there are probably several of us who would like to know." Amos agreed.

"Hear, hear." Remus agreed.

"The Arrest Order request comes from Minister Fudge." Augusta read from her documents.

"Yes, but who paid you to do so, Fudge?" Frank asked him.

Fudge sputtered.

"That's slander!" Umbridge shouted as she pointed a finger at Frank.

"SILENCE!" Augusta thundered. "You have no voice in this Assembly, Undersecretary! You will be silent or you will be removed!"

Undersecretary Umbridge sat quietly, hands folded in her lap.

"It is immaterial where the Minister's impetus came from, he made the request. You, " Augusta pointed her gavel at her son, "Will refrain from making accusations of illegality. That is what the DMLE is for. You are free to take your accusations there."

Frank blushed and bowed. "Quite correct, Chief Warlock. My apologies, Minister." He sat down again.

Augusta returned her gavel to its place and noticed a hand up in the Assembly. "Yes, Lord...?"

"Ah, Creevey, madam Warlock. My boy's the Lord, I'm just proxy until he's old enough."

Augusta nodded. "You have a question?"

"Yes ma'am. We seem to be deciding if this Potter person should be arrested, but do we know if he's actually done anything yet? Has he had a trial?"

"His guilt is not in question, Lord Creevey." Amelia answered. "He brought evidence to the DMLE of his crime and admitted his own guilt. The fact that he murdered Voldemort and each of your predecess-"

"OBJECTION!" Fudge roared. "There is NO EVIDENCE of His return! He Who Must Not Be Named is long dead!"

Amelia's brows went flat as she stared at Fudge. "No Evidence, hm? Page!" She beckoned one of the pages over with a flick of her finger. The lad trotted over sharply, and she whispered to him. He nodded and trotted off again out of the chamber.

"Will you accept the evidence of your own eyes, Minister? If Voldemo-"

"Stop saying that name!" Fudge shouted.

Amelia looked like she wanted to stand up and slap him. "If _Voldemort_ appeared in front of you, would that be evidence enough for you?"

Fudge glared at Amelia. His face grew red and began to bead with sweat. " _There is no such evidence_!" He fairly shook with vehemence.

The page Amelia had spoken to returned with a large jar held in front of him, and placed it on the table in front of Fudge, then returned to his position.

Amelia nodded at the page. "Thank you." She said as she rose from her seat and went to stand in front of Fudge. She turned the jar so that it faced Fudge, then tapped it with her wand. The jar became instantly transparent, and Voldemort's severed head stared at Fudge.

Fudge screamed.

Fudge fainted.

"Fuckin' 'ell." Fenton whispered. His face twisted as he looked at Voldemort's remains.

"Pages, please remove the Minister and see that he receives medical attention." Augusta asked them. Two of them dutifully trotted forward, and one flicked his wand at the Minister, who then levitated out of his seat and out of the chambers. Camera flashes accompanied the opening of the main doors as they exited.

Quiet reigned when the doors closed again, and stretched out for a long moment. Some of the Assembly began to look around to see what the delay might be.

Augusta stared directly at Umbridge.

After an entire minute passed, Augusta finally spoke up.

"You are here because Fudge brought you, _Undersecretary_. You may leave now."

"I will not. The Minister will want to know what -"

"Out!" Augusta commanded.

"I am the _Senior_ Undersecretary to the -"

"Aurors, please remove the Undersecretary." Augusta asked the duty officers.

"I AM THE SENIOR UNDERSECRETARY -" Dolores shouted as she rose from her seat and pulled out her wand. She never finished her sentence. She was slammed by two stunbolts and thrown backward into the table in front of Lord Tonks.

"Jumped up toad." Ted muttered.

"She was hopping mad." Fenton agreed.

The two of them looked at each other and grinned.

One of the Aurors floated Umbridge's unconscious form out of the chambers while the other took up his position again. More camera flashes and half-shouted questions from the hallway.

"Now, if we could get back to business?" Augusta asked. "Scribe, please read the last official?"

"Last was Lady Bones, she said 'He brought evidence to the DMLE of his crime and admitted his own guilt. The fact that he murdered Voldemort and each of your predecess-' The end was cut off by the Minister, Chief Warlock."

"Thank you." Augusta replied. "Amelia, if you would continue your reply please?"

Amelia nodded to Augusta. "As I was saying, the fact that Potter killed Voldemort and many of this Assembly is not in question. The only question is what to do about it. The Wizengamot cannot be seen to ignore mass murder, regardless the disposition of the parties involved."

"Beg pardon for my ignorance everyone, but looking at that -" Fenton nodded to Voldemort's head, "I can't imagine that was a fine, upstanding member of society. Who or what was it? And from what I'm hearing, previous members of this body _followed_ this... person? Looked up to it?"

"Precisely, Lord Creevey." Lady Vance said, "That one promised them dominion, espoused that rule was their right for having been born from a long line of wizards and witches - What they call 'purebloods'. Previous members of this body were attracted to that idea, and did that one's bidding. In return, he led them against the standing order."

"So... they were terrorists?" Fenton's eyebrows climbed his forehead.

"That's a good word for it." Sirius nodded. "They used fear and pain and worse to attempt to take over. They almost succeeded the first time, too."

"Okay, well that makes it clear then doesn't it?" Fenton asked, "If they worked toward taking over the government, that makes it treason. They're traitors. Plus, I met Potter. Called himself MacFusty at the time," He paused to smile and nod at Fergus, " and he's just a kid. A BIG kid, mind, but he's all of what? Sixteen?"

"Fifteen." Fergus supplied.

"Fifteen! Mother's mercy... so a bloody child had to do what nobody else could or would and removed an imminent threat to the very government that now wants to put him in prison for it? Where I come from we give medals to exceptional soldiers, we don't put them in jail."

"Well bloody said!" Nexie slapped her hand on the table in front of her. "'E' were such a cute thing too. 'Im an 'is wee ladyfriend 'ad the most adorable loveyfaces fer each other. Can we give 'im a medal instead?"

"Er, Lady...?" Augusta looked through her documents to try to find her name.

"Froad, Chief Warlock. Nexitania Froad."

"I have met the boy and his wife as well, and their cuteness is not relevant to this discussion."

"Married! Aww, Merlin bless 'em!" Nexie smiled.

"Cuteness aside, I fully concur with Lady Froad." Frank said. "I move we strike the arrest authorization and award Lord and Lady Potter Orders of Merlin First Class instead."

"Seconded!" Sirius barked.

"Aye!" Remus added.

"Aye!" Nexie slapped the table again.

"Aye!" Xenophilius agreed with a large smile.

"Alright, alright. Order!" Augusta banged her gavel again. "When I point to you, state your name and your vote yea or nay in the matter of awarding Orders of Merlin First Class to Lord and Lady Potter. We'll start with you, Amelia."

Augusta pointed to each Lord and Lady present, who gave their names and votes.

"I count nineteen for, four against, and one Recusement. Scribe, please confirm?" Augusta did her best to hold back her smile.

Everyone waited while the scribe counted the votes from the transcript. "One Recusement in the case of Lord MacFusty. Members Burke, Doge, Fawley, and Ogden vote nay with a total of four against. Members Abbott, Bell, Bones, Clearwater, Creevey, Diggory, Fortescu, Froad, Greengrass, Johnson, Jones, Lovegood, Lupin, MacMillan, Marchbanks, Ollivander, Roper, Tonks, and Vance vote yea for a total of Nineteen in favor, aye Chief Warlock."

"Motion to award Lord and Lady Potter Orders of Merlin First Class has passed, motion to arrest is defeated." Augusta banged her gavel with finality. "Next on the docket?"

"Next is Amendment forty-seven to Statute Eighty-Three stroke D..."

The scribe described an amendment to a law that on the surface looked like it would set defined punishments for bribery, but in the details actually made it legal to bribe Wizengamot members. It was defeated twenty to four. After that, it became fairly clear to the newest members of the Wizengamot exactly how things had been run and who among them was interested in their own gain.

When the session concluded, two hours later than had been scheduled, it was also clear that those same four used all the tricks in the political book, but their go-to tactic was stalling. They'd talk about everything under the sun and promise that it related to the topic at hand, but after the two hours that the session ran over, the Chief Warlock grew tired of it and began to shut them down when they started.

"So, how was your first day?" Sirius asked Fenton as they left the chambers.

"It was great!" Fenton smiled, "Beats the hell out of being a milkman, I'll tell you that much. Toad jokes, screaming and fainting, severed heads, and taking money away from greedy old coots - Wizard politics is _wicked_ fun."

  
  


* * *

  
  


"I'm worried, Harry." Hermione rested her head against his as they flew with arms wrapped around each other. "We're running out of Territories to look in."

"Me too." He admitted softly, "This was the best choice, the easiest place, but even if he isn't here we won't stop looking. We'll just have to change tacks. Maybe find people who deal in illegal creatures or something. We won't stop looking until we find him or his bones."

She nodded, but the look in her eyes was desperate for it to not come to that.

The Longhorn was long and sleek. Not as sinuous as the Yulong, not as powerful as the Sarkany, but imposing nonetheless. She had minor bonespikes along the ridge of her back, but two long, slightly upwardly-curved horns that glittered like polished gold. The rest of her was gradients of green - light over her belly, dark on her back ridge, and in between everywhere else. She basked sleepily in the mid-morning sun on the bank of a stream that trickled down from the mountaintop. She looked up at them as Harry and Hermione landed on the opposite side of the stream.

"Greetings," Hermione said as they bowed. "We apologize for our intrusion into your territory, we will leave if you wish it. We seek Eagle's Doom, a male Svurtr. Have you seen him?"

The Longhorn smiled at them. "I wondered when you would finally come to see old Sulita. I know who you are and what you seek, pinkskins. It is all anyone speaks of these days. I admit, I had not known his name - He does not speak but twice in the last twenty summers."

"You've seen him?! Is he here?!" Harry blurted excitedly.

Sulita chuckled. "Maybe he is and maybe he isn't. Sulita knows."

Harry's brows fell and he looked at Hermione. She looked at him with the same expression.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked.

"That is not how negotiation is done, little morsel." Sulita raised her head, her sharp golden horns pointed at them.

"We will not negotiate. He is family and we will take him home. Name your price." Hermione countered.

Sulita chuckled again. "Very well, Sulita sees the art of the struggle is lost upon you." She sighed, and a long thin flame like a blowtorch jetted from her nostrils. "Sulita desires a pet. I will keep your male. That is my price."

The air above Hermione warped with invisible flame as her hair unbraided itself to flutter and snap in the sudden wind.

"Sulita takes that as a 'no'?" The dragon chuckled smugly.

"Sulita has offered insult. We have observed the forms and Sulita wishes death instead." Hermione said.

The dragon actually grinned wider then. Harry thought maybe she really did want to die.

"Sulita sees the Balaur grow soft. Sulita sees The Balaur make nice with pinkskins. _PINKSKINS._ Sulita will show them all they have forgotten how to _be_." The dragon lifted itself from its slumbering pose and raised her middle as her wings flapped free. Her foreclaws came off the ground and her head went still as she focused on Hermione like a snake about to strike - and just as quickly, her head snapped forward, propelled by her long powerful body at blinding speed.

Unfortunately for her, Sulita chose to strike at Harry.

Maybe Sulita had never fought a human before and didn't know what they were capable of, maybe she was just old and slower than she might have been. Whatever the reason, Harry simply twisted away from the deadly horns. He was unable to get completely out of the way, as she was still quite fast, and her wingjoint connected with his face.

Sulita was much slower to retract her head than she was to extend it, and Hermione saw it. Sulita _attacked_ her Harry. Her _mate_. With a burst of adrenaline, she jumped onto Sulita's snout and gripped both her horns as she stared into the dragon's eye.

A soundless explosion detonated and lay the grass flat, blew leaves from trees, and changed the course of the stream for a moment as their Wills collided.

"You cannot!" Sulita's voice rose three octaves. "Sulita's mind belongs to Sulita! Filthy pinkskin!"

Hermione's teeth ground with the effort of battle as she sought to overwhelm the dragon's Will. "I. Am. Many Questions. Of The Svurtr. You are Lizard Meat. YOU HURT MY MATE! I WILL TAKE YOUR MIND AND BURN YOUR EMPTY SHELL!"

With each growled word, Hermione's eyes shone a little brighter. Her aura grew bigger and more visible as Sulita tried desperately to shake Hermione off. Sulita reached scrabbling claws at her, and raked Hermione's legs, but Hermione had a deathgrip on both of the dragon's horns. Sulita could not look away.

"No! NO! NO!!!" Sulita screamed. She blew twin jets of fire from her nostrils, but Hermione straddled her snout above them, and the flames could not reach her.

Hermione screamed in rage and triumph as the dragon’s Will broke and Hermione drained her mind of every last instant.

Sulita slumped to the ground, limp. Empty.

Hermione rolled when the dragon's head hit the ground, and went immediately to Harry. His face was a bloody mess, but even as she watched she could see bone and cartilage slide back into place as he healed. She took his head into her lap and cleaned the blood from his skin with the hem of her jumper while she waited for him to wake.

"Hermione!" He yelled as he sat up, his arms out before him.

She pulled him back down to her lap and ran her fingers through his hair. "Relax, it's okay. Are you alright?"

Harry pushed his fingers at his face. "A little tender. What happened?" He smelled blood, and turned to see her leg. He Resonated immediately and clamped an invisible wrapping around her leg like a bandage made of force.

“It’s alright, it’s just a scratch.” She said, “It’s healing.”

“How did you -” He turned his head and saw Sulita's limp, drooling form.

"She knew where Father was, so I took it from her. She hurt you, so I... took everything else too." He was looking into her eyes, or he'd have missed the shadow that passed across them.

"Feeling guilty?" He asked.

She smiled at him and kissed his forehead. "Stop being so observant."

He smiled back. "Where you're concerned, never."

She smiled back at him, then her smile fell. "Sad. Apparently Longhorns can have multiple Mates. She couldn't understand why Father denied her. Why he wouldn't make children with her. She offered herself to him for years and years. I won't say she loved him, I don't think she understood the concept... but she genuinely wanted him."

"That is sad. No wonder she was like that." Harry brushed his fingers over her cheek. "Thanks for being you."

She smiled at him again, and kissed him softly. "Are you alright to move? I want to get Father home to Mother."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I can't wait to see their faces when they're together again." Harry beamed a smile at her. He stood up and took her hand.

"He's in a cave just up the mountain here." She grinned back at him as she Resonated. As he went to take to the air, she pulled him toward Sulita's breathing corpse. "I told her I would burn her empty shell."

She stepped on Sulita's lower lip and pushed her mouth open until she had her arms above her head with elbows locked. Hermione took a deep breath, and Breathed into Sulita's throat.

As Harry watched, it seemed that Sulita's body grew bloated, then began to glow a faint green. Seconds later, her body deflated as her meat and skin turned to ash. Her bones were left, they glowed a bright orange and hissed while they settled onto the ground. The neck could not support the head without the meat, and Sulita's head rolled to the left and burned to the bone after Hermione stepped away.

Hermione shrank Sulita's skull with its long, sharp horns intact to the size of a breadbox, and held it out to Harry. "Would you? It just seems right that we keep it. I'm not really sure why."

"I kept Tom's head. Never hurts to have evidence, regardless." Harry said as he pulled his trunk out and placed the skull inside. "It might be a Svurtr thing as well. We do keep hoards, after all."

"Maybe. Let's get Father home, we can think about it later. We're so close!"

"Lead on then, you know where he is." Harry tucked his trunk back in his pocket and held his hand out as he rose off the ground. She followed him with a smile, and took his hand to lead him to the cave where Father waited.

It was more of a large crack in the mountain than a cave mouth, long and jagged, but wide enough for a full-grown dragon to fit through. Harry and Hermione flew through the opening with no problems. The light disappeared quickly within the cave, so they pushed their magic into their eyes and continued on. They flew for another minute or so before the passage opened into a wide chamber that sloped gradually upward to their right.

He lay on the bare stone, quiet and still. His posture was curled into the semblance of sleep, but with a spike of worried adrenaline, Harry realized he couldn't see Father breathing.

He was beyond emaciated.

They easily counted all Father's ribs. Each and every bone plate along his spine. Even the bones in his hip and flank.

"Oh no..." Hermione breathed. They landed next to him, and Harry reached out with his Resonance to touch something, anything...

"He's still there." He half-cried with relief. "It's very weak, but he's still there."

"He needs food." Hermione realized. "He looks like he hasn't eaten in twenty years."

"I doubt it's been that long, but you're not wrong. I'll go -"

"No, I'll go. You stay with him."

"You just used a massive amount of energy, you need to rest. I'll go. I'll be quick." He kissed her as he walked back toward the cave mouth. Try as she might, she couldn't argue.

She watched him fly out of the cave again, and that was when she saw the nests. Dozens and dozens of nests, each holding three or four unfertilized eggs surrounded Eagle's Doom, and Sulita's memories of building and filling each one flitted through her mind. She shed a tear for the desires of the now-departed Sulita, but refused to regret her actions. Sulita had literally decades to find a different dragon, one who wasn't already Mated, but she hadn't. She hadn't even tried.

Harry returned within ten minutes, trailing a deer in the air behind him.

"I was thinking about how to feed him," She said as Harry landed, "If you hold his mouth open I'll just put it right into his stomach."

Harry kissed her. "Brilliant. Not too much, I wouldn't want him to sick it up again. Start with the liver, see how that sits. Mother always said the liver was the best bit, but I always hated the flavour." Harry opened the deer and held the insides in place while she delicately floated the liver out.

Harry lifted Father's jaw open physically, and she waited until he was in a comfortable position. He nodded when he was, and she floated the liver into Father's shrivelled stomach.

"We... have a choice now." Harry said as he shifted his grip on Father's teeth and gently closed the sleeping dragon's mouth.

"What choice?" She asked with a frown.

"It could take weeks of this for him to get strong enough to wake up. We keep feeding him and nurse him back to health until he's strong enough,"

"Or?"

"Or we leave him asleep and fly him home over the next few days. I doubt there's any way he'd survive being Apparated."

"Hm. Couldn't we push magic into our blood and feed him some? Heal him that way?"

Harry shook his head. "Svurtr blood won't work on Svurtr. I don't know if any other type would, but I know for a fact Svurtr won't. That was why I told you we only had one shot at changing you. If you hadn't been so determined and gotten through it - if you had been grossed out or sicked up or something, you'd have been stuck with however incomplete your change was. Once you were part Svurtr, that was it."

Hermione frowned as the reality of what might have been flashed through her mind. "I'm glad I listened to you. Just thinking about what could have happened is horrifying."

"I'm glad you did too." He smiled and kissed her cheek.

"Alright then, I guess we'll fly him home. A few days' worth of higher effort is better than a few weeks' worth of nursing. We can stockpile some food for Mother so she doesn't have to hunt to feed him."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. If you can handle the Notice-me-not and flying yourself, I'll take Father and me to start. I figure we might make it to Austria before we need to rest for the night."

She grinned at him and began to Resonate. "I can't wait to get him home."

They stopped for the night within sight of the Hungarian-Austrian border. Harry wanted to make it over the border, but Hermione forced him to the ground because she could feel his Resonance fading. He only insisted he could have made it twice before he admitted she was right and promptly fell asleep.

They traded Father back and forth between them the next day, and stopped for the night just east of Luxembourg. They were both exhausted and fell asleep in each others' arms almost immediately. Harry Apparated to Potter Glen in the morning and got them some food, and they resumed their trek northwest.

They gained England before noon that day, and decided to push on despite being tired and hungry. The thought of being so close to Mother kept them moving, kept them trading Father's weight, until just before sunset when they realized neither could support Father any longer, so they held hands and slipped into Harmony and held him aloft together.

A lance of bright blue flame tinted with curls of amethyst shot into the sky just ahead of them, and both Harry and Hermione began to cry.

They'd done it. They were home.

They descended and brought Father to a gentle rest in Mother's Nest while Mother stood on the lip of stone and bellowed her flame into the night.

It was joy, it was rage, it was sorrow, it was relief and triumph and love. It was all that and more, all wrapped up and thrust into the sky on flames of magic.

Harry held Hermione close as they witnessed Mother's emotions, their own cheeks wet with them. They fell asleep against Harry's former hoard with their arms wrapped around each other while Mother recovered and quietly nuzzled her Mate.

When they woke still wrapped in each other, Hermione nuzzled her cold nose into Harry's neck.

"Ack!" He complained. "So mean."

Hermione just smiled at him and snuggled closer.

"Good morning, my Young." Mother rumbled. She had put her Mate on her hoard and lay next to him with one of her wings draped over him.

"Good morning, Mother." Hermione grinned. "Sorry we fell asleep so fast last night."

Mother shook her head. "Do not be. I could feel your colours pale. You were very close to rest whether you wanted it or no. I thank you from the depths of magic. I can never repay what you have done. I have my Mate back."

"Father still needs care and a lot of work. He's a little stronger now because we've fed him over the last couple of days, but we think he's been asleep a very long time." Harry said.

Mother raised her head to look at them. "How have you fed him if he cannot eat himself?"

"We'll show you." Hermione stood up and pulled Harry to his feet. "We are going to go bring you a few deer to keep here so that you don't have to leave him for a while. We'll show you how we've done it when we return." She looked at Harry with an eyebrows raised, and he nodded in return. Hermione Resonated and flew out of the nest.

"Many Questions grows strong." Mother said after Hermione had gone.

"She does. It makes me so happy, Mother." Harry smiled back at her. "Look into my thoughts, see her as she was when we met."

She did, and snorted flames at what she saw. "That is truly her?"

"It used to be. It pains me to think what she went through, and what she might have become if we had not found each other. She is so strong now, so bright. I love her with everything that I am." Harry smiled and hugged Mother's neck. "I'm sure you already know that part."

Mother rumbled in her throat. "I do."

"That's why you should spare no thought for repayment, Mother. We both understand and cannot imagine what it has been like without Father. Neither of us _wants_ to imagine it."

"I begin to understand, I think." Mother looked at her sleeping Mate.

Harry smiled at them both, and began to Resonate. "Back in a bit, can't let my Mate do all the work."

Mother chuffed at him as he left the Nest.

They brought three deer and two goats back to the Nest with them, and left them under stasis charms in the colder half of the Nest.

Harry Resonated and performed the levitation charm slowly, then repeated it slowly four times until Mother saw how it was done.

"That's it!" Harry beamed as Mother picked up one of the goats and brought it toward her. "All we've done is lift Father's head so his mouth opens, and float the meat directly into his stomach, like so." He nodded at Hermione, who performed the actions he described. "It's been a few days, so he might be able to take more than a tiny morsel at a time. We tried to not give him very much at once because it would be bad for him to sick it up again."

"I understand." Mother said.

"We'll come back again in a few days to visit and see how you are." Hermione hugged Mother's neck and then stood next to Harry and took his hand.

"I will look forward to it, daughter." Mother thrummed happily.

Harry just smiled at Mother and Apparated them to Potter Glen.

"Oh thank you. I was going to say we should come home for a bit, I'm desperate for a shower." Hermione kissed him quickly and walked briskly toward the house. Then she ran toward the house with squeals and giggles when she saw he chased her.

They soaped and cleaned each other under the hot steamy water, just happy to be together. Harry wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled her neck.

"I had fun in the forest." He said.

"I did as well." She smiled up at him and laid her head on his shoulder.

"We have a month left until school, I think it's time we tried the tropical island."

"I would love that too, but I thought we were going to do that next summer?" She frowned slightly and pulled away to look in his eyes.

Harry smiled sheepishly. "I just want more of your time," He sighed. "I never expected other dragons to be so damn _chatty_."

Hermione laughed.

  
  


* * *

  
  


There was an... oiliness to Minister Fudge that Neville had never been close enough to the man physically to observe before. It wasn't a tangible thing, either. Neville couldn't point to any sheen over the man's skin or any droplets left behind. It was the way his expressions stuck to his face and then slid off when replaced by the next. Like his face was actually just a series of masks chosen as appropriate for the arse he attempted to kiss. It made Neville slightly nauseous.

Thankfully, Fudge only tried to kiss Neville's arse once half-heartedly, then moved on. He had no idea how Harry put up with the gallons of spit the man lobbed up his backside. Finally, after seeing that Harry and Hermione grew disgusted by his fawning, Fudge moved to the center of the hastily-erected stage and the podium that stood there.

"Good afternoon!" His magically-enhanced voice echoed between the buildings throughout Diagon. "Thank you all for coming to witness this most momentous occasion." He raised his hands and gestured for the crowd to quiet down. "Some of you will have no doubt heard rumors of the return of You-Know-Who. I would like to put those rumors to rest. They were absolutely true. You-Know-Who, with the help of his followers, had resurrected."

The crowd noise surged again as people gasped and spoke to each other in hushed tones.

"HOWEVER!" Fudge bellowed, "However... there is no need to panic. Please, relax. The diligent and heroic efforts of two young students not only discovered his means of returning to life, but destroyed it!” Fudge paused two beats for dramatic effect. “You-Know-Who is now gone! Forever!" He lapped up the roar of applause and shouts from the assembled Witches and Wizards. When it started to peter out, He put his hands up again for quiet. "We are here today to honour those two students who bravely fought and destroyed You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters."

"Minister Fudge! Minister Fudge!" Several people at the front of the crowd put their hands up, others just began to shout questions, and no-one could be heard at all.

"Quiet down, please!" Fudge's magically enhanced voice easily rolled over everyone else. "There will be time for questions afterward. Please save all your questions until then. I turn the proceedings over now to the Chief Warlock, Lady Longbottom." Fudge made a grand show of graciously allowing Augusta to take the spotlight, though he didn't exactly vacate the area.

Augusta stepped up to the podium and turned to gesture Fergus forward. He walked up and stopped behind her, as out of view of the crowd as was possible. He looked both proud and terrified as he held open a shiny black box.

Augusta's magically enhanced voice was even louder than Fudge's. "For service to the Land and People of Magical Britain above and beyond the pale, for Protection of The Realm as a whole, we the Ministry of Magic hereby award the Order of Merlin, First Class to... Harry Potter."

A collective gasp washed through the crowd of onlookers as she said Harry's name. Several of the reporters in the front row immediately ignored Fudge's instruction to save their questions and shouted Harry's name to get his attention. None of them saw who it was who silenced them, but they all fell silent at once.

Harry flashed Hermione a grateful smile as he walked forward to stand beside Augusta. She turned to face him as he faced her, and she took the solid gold medal from its resting place in the box held by Fergus.

"That's two debts Britain owes you that we can never repay, Lord Potter." She said as she pinned the medal to his robes. "From the bottom of our collective hearts, Thank You Harry." Augusta shook his hand with both of hers, then let him go. Harry took a step back to give Hermione room in front of Augusta.

Augusta turned and gestured for Evelyn to step forward, next to Fergus.

"For service to the Land and People of Magical Britain above and beyond the pale, for Protection of The Realm as a whole, we the Ministry of Magic hereby award the Order of Merlin, First Class to Hermione Potter, formerly Granger."

Hermione strode forward and stood next to Harry with a happy smile at her Mum. Harry's fingers surreptitiously interlaced with hers. Augusta took the medal from the box Evelyn held and pinned it to Hermione's robes. "From the bottom of our collective hearts, Thank you Hermione. Your selfless heroism in the face of great personal danger is an inspiration to us all." Augusta smiled at her, but Evelyn's proud smile was wet with tears.

Neville had to agree. Just thinking about what Hermione had done while she'd been "dead" tied his stomach in knots. Neither he nor Daphne nor Luna had believed Harry when he'd told them Hermione had done the Lion's Share of the work until they'd explained the whole thing.

Harry and Hermione bowed to his Gran then, and turned to face the crowd. Neither of them looked happy to be there, but at the same time they didn't look particularly uncomfortable either. Augusta shook both their hands with a huge smile for each.

Fudge stood again in front of the podium while Lady Longbottom congratulated Harry and Hermione and then returned to her seat.

"As promised, we'll answer a few questions now." Fudge grinned smarmily.

Hermione quietly cancelled her silence so the reporters could speak again.

Harry shot Neville a nervous glance as he fingered what was in his pocket, and Neville understood instantly. He nodded back to Harry with a smile and two thumbs-up. Harry smiled softly back at him as he hung his head and then returned his attention to the crowd.

Fudge pointed to one lady in the front row.

"Penelope Clearwater, Daily Prophet." She stated, "Lord Potter, how did you come to be known as Duncan MacFusty? Was it a disguise?"

Harry shook his head. "No, Miss Clearwater. I am more Duncan MacFusty than I am Harry Potter, same as I was when we met on the train. Fergus and Maisie MacFusty took me in and raised me as their own from the time I was ten. Until I met Fergus and Maisie MacFusty I didn't know what clothes were, I didn't speak English and had no idea what my name was."

A surge of hands and questions happened from the front row then, and Fudge pointed to another reporter.

"Sebayshus Furnunkal, Magical Times. If you're really Harry Potter, born Nineteen-Eighty, you'd be fifteen years old. How is it that you're a Lord at fifteen?"

Harry raised his eyebrows slightly, as though to acknowledge it a fair question. "There was a Death Eater who posed as our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher last year. He put my name in the Goblet of Fire so that I would be chosen as a Champion of Triwizard Tournament. The Ministry had declared that only of age students could compete, but I was forced to anyway, so the Ministry had to accept my bid for emancipation since they had already declared me to be of age."

"An oversight which shan't happen again!" Fudge added, as he pointed to a woman in the first row.

"Spleneta Targe, Witch Weekly. My question is for Miss Granger -"

"That's Lady Potter." Hermione corrected.

"Ah, Lady Potter. Of course. Are you married and if so, how and when?"

"We are. We were married September twenty-fourth last year, after our first kiss. Magic decided we were married, and we got a letter of congratulations from Gringotts. It was something of a surprise for both of us." She smiled at Harry, and he smiled back at her. "We have grown closer since then, and I don't mind telling you I fell in love with him. I guess Magic knows what it's about."

There was a general chuckle through the crowd at that. Fudge looked as though he was about to point to someone else, but Harry interrupted him.

"Actually, I have something small to add to that..." He turned and looked at Hermione. "I absolutely fell in love with you too, and even though I trust Magic, I wouldn't want you to feel cheated by the fact that your experience was different from what you might have wanted, so..." He dropped to one knee and pulled the box from his pocket to open it in front of her. "Hermione, would you marry me?"

He looked up into her eyes, and her shocked surprise gave way to unshed tears.

"Yes." She breathed heavily, "Of course yes."

Harry took the ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger where it resized itself to fit perfectly. He didn't have time to put the box back in his pocket before she pulled him to his feet by his lapels and kissed him thoroughly.

A cheer went up from the crowd as the empty box clattered to the stage floor.

"I think that's all the questions for the Potters..." Fudge chuckled and pointed to someone else in the crowd of reporters while Harry and Hermione wrapped one arm around each other and quietly left the stage.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Daphne couldn't concentrate.

It wasn't bad enough that Head Boy Roger Davies could barely get a sentence out without Head Girl Patricia Stimpson having to correct him - she could have dealt with that, she already knew everything that would be expected of her as Prefect. No, it was that slut Brown. She kept biting her lip and trying to touch her Neville. Like just because they were Gryffindor prefects that meant he was somehow available to her.

Daphne sighed internally and corrected herself. It wasn't just Brown. She knew Neville would never take her up on her obvious offer. Daphne still wanted to slap the shit out of her for offering, but truthfully it was Neville himself. They'd seen each other for dates over the summer, but it was his seriousness as he listened to Davies and Stimpson. It was the fact that he'd grown taller and wider and harder over the summer. It was the badge, too. Just looking at him made her belly heat up something fierce.

She'd watched him when she could during the boarding as well. He was so stern, so commanding, then he'd seen a first-year have some sort of trouble and he was all smiles and kindness and help. It made her desperate to snog his face off. That was the real reason she couldn't be bothered to listen to Davies and Stimpson.

Finally the Heads stopped yapping and let them go accomplish their tasks. Neville smiled at her as he held the door for her and Zabini to pass through. She actually sort of felt sorry for Zabini - he'd never asked to be a prefect and absolutely didn't want to, he was just the only fifth year Slytherin male left alive. He hadn't been given a choice.

She smiled back at Neville as she passed him and shot him a look that told him she couldn't wait for their duties to be concluded. He smiled back at her and gave her a look that made her shudder in anticipation.

She and Zabini accomplished their rounds with no difficulty, and only had to admonish a pair of fourth-years who were a little too amorous in front of the firsties roaming the hall. She did manage to sneak a few moments to have a quick chat with Luna, but it was over before she could really enjoy seeing her friend again.

The train ride was over after an eternity of duty and frustration, but she was thrilled to see Neville and Luna waited with the last carriage for her to finish. Once all the students were accounted for and on their own carriages, she practically flew into Neville's arms and included Luna in a thrashing great hug.

"I missed you both." She smiled as she climbed into the carriage. Neville, ever the gentleman, held the door for them both.

"I missed you too, Club Sister." Luna grinned happily at her, "I'm going to miss Hermione this year too."

"Me too." Daphne admitted, "We'll just have to hug each other extra this year to make up her share. We are still going to see them weekends and holidays?" She looked between Neville and Luna. She hadn't heard anything from either Hermione or Dun - Harry, but she knew she wasn't as close to them as Neville and Luna were.

"I don't know." Neville replied. "That was the plan, but after the awards ceremony they both took off for the tropics and I haven't heard a word in the two weeks since."

"I hope so." Luna said. "I don't want to have to wait a whole term."

"Me either." Neville agreed, "Especially when It'll be up to us to push Study Group ahead as well." Neville added.

"I like Study Group. I'll take over if you don't want to, Neville." Luna smiled.

"You can take over any time you like, Luna." He smiled back at her. "I'll be studying regardless. Gran pulled a massive amount of Wizengamot history and legal precedent for me from the archives at the Ministry, I'll be studying that this term as well as N.E.W.T. material... and reviewing for O.W.L.s. Damn, I forgot O.W.L.s were this year."

That made Daphne pout internally. Neither of them was going to have much free time, that was clear already.

"I have us reviewing for O.W.L.s every Friday on the schedule. I figured it might be nice to go over things that won't be too difficult just before the weekend." Luna said smugly.

"Brilliant." Daphne grinned at Luna, then had to hug her again just for her cute little smug smile.

"I like new cuddlier Daphne too." Luna laughed.

"Good, I blame it entirely on you and Hermione!"

"Aw, no credit for Neville?" Luna replied.

Neville just smiled back. "I don't need credit, I'm thrilled it happened at all. My parents are awake, Harry and Hermione are alive, Voldemort's dead, I have friends and goals, and the most perfect girlfriend I could ever hope for. I never imagined my life could be this good."

Daphne felt her eyes sting along with her heart, and she pulled Neville's lips to her own.

"I'm all for naked things, but could it wait until we get into the castle?" Luna's cheeks turned a slight pink.

Daphne smiled back. "Sorry, couldn't resist." She shifted over to wrap her arms around Neville's right arm and leaned on his shoulder.

They arrived back at the castle faster than she would have liked, and she reluctantly let go of Neville so he could go to his table and she to hers. She didn't know whether to be upset or thrilled that the Slytherin table was less than half as full as the other tables, and ninety percent of the students who sat there were girls. She counted exactly four boys, but this year's Sort hadn't happened yet.

She seated herself near the end of the table where the new first-years would sit. As a prefect she would be expected to help them assimilate and guide them where they needed to go - but at the same time, she didn't feel any desire to sit closer to the rest of her house.

No sooner had she seated herself than she felt a pair of arms around her ribs and a pair of breasts on her back and she smelled coconut and parchment.

"Shh." Nobody whispered in her ear. "We're going to go surprise Neville, but I wanted to say hello first. Don't let on we're here yet."

Hermione! She and Harry were here? They were supposed to be in Naples!

She wrapped her arms around Hermione's and squeezed.

"We'll come talk during dinner, promise." Hermione whispered, then she was gone.

Luna squealed with joy a minute later, and silenced most of her table as she got her hug. Daphne couldn't help but smile at her delight, and realized Luna must have been more upset than she let on earlier. She then got up and moved to the other side of the Ravenclaw table so she could watch Neville, but she flashed Daphne a big grin as she did. Daphne nodded and smiled back.

Neville sat facing the great hall, with his back toward the far wall. He chatted amiably with some of his housemates, but she could see he was less than enthusiastic about it. Harry and Hermione appeared out of thin air on either side of him, and it took him a moment to notice.

"Son of a troll!!" Neville's voice carried across the Great Hall when he noticed Harry's smug grin. Daphne hoped they had one of their friends taking his picture, because his face was absolutely priceless.

There were even more children to Sort that year than the last, but only four of the twenty-six were sorted into Slytherin, and three of those looked ready to cry because of it. The other one, a little blonde girl, wore the same happy smile she had the entire time. Daphne thought she was likely a muggle-born and didn't really understand the houses. She guided all four to have a seat near her.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, and welcome to Slytherin House. I'm Daphne Greengrass, I'm one of your Prefects. If you ever have any questions or problems, you can come and talk to me straight away."

"I'm Tiffany Shirtliff! Can you do magic? Is the ceiling magic or is it just fake like movie magic? How many -"

"One question at a time please, Tiffany." Daphne smiled. The two boys and other girl just sulked. She noticed the Headmistress take her place at the podium and corrected herself. "Actually, you'll have to hold on to your questions for a moment, the Headmistress is about to tell you important things, you should pay attention."

Tiffany bit her lip and turned to face the high table. Thankfully, Headmistress McGonagall's address was short and to the point.

"I would like to take just a moment to thank our new Professors - teaching Potions and filling the role of Slytherin Head of House this year will be Mrs. Charlotte Alexander." She paused for the applause the students heaped upon the new Potions Professor. "Teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, Miss Dora Tonks." Again, the applause seemed enthusiastic. "I expect each of you to treat them with the same respect you show the other Professors. Once again, as every year, the Forbidden Forest is strictly forbidden. Any student caught there will face one month's detention. That is all, enjoy your dinners."

The table suddenly filled with all manner of food and drink, and the expressions of joy on the faces of her First Year charges made her smile.

"Brilliant!" Tiffany exclaimed as she began to collect food to her plate. The other three clearly enjoyed the display, but weren't quite pulled from their funk - not until Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Luna all sat down next to them.

"Hi!" Luna smiled at them.

"Moira, Tiffany, Graham, Roger, these are my friends Harry, Hermione, Luna, and Neville." Daphne explained.

"No way! You're friends with Gryffindors! I wanted to be in Gryffindor!" Roger pouted.

"There's nothing saying you can't have friends in other houses. You can be friends with anyone. As you can see, all my friends are from other houses." She smiled at the boy, and at that Roger, Graham, and Moira all filled with smiles.

Daphne encouraged them all to eat, and put food on her own plate. "So? Why not Naples?" She asked Hermione.

Hermione flashed her a quick smile. "We were out for a swim when I realized there wasn't any point to leaving anymore. Everything that made the place horrid had been dealt with, and I'd be a fool to abandon friends it took me three years to make. We gave our spots in Naples to a couple of students who couldn't afford it since they don't give tuition refunds, and here we are."

Daphne smiled back at her. "Well I'm glad. It wouldn't have been the same without you. Either of you."

"We would've missed you too."

"Plus, if we'd gone to Naples, then we wouldn't have met our new Slytherin friends, and we wouldn't be able to tell them all your dirty secrets, right guys?" Harry grinned at the First Years.

"Yeah!" Graham grinned.

"I want to know all the dirty secrets!" Moira beamed as well.

Daphne glared at Harry, who had the temerity to simply wink back at her as he continued. “Before that though, you should focus on your studies and learning your way around the castle. There’s plenty of time for dirty secrets when you know where you’re going and have a handle on your classes.”

Hermione reached over and slapped Harry’s shoulder. “Behave!”

Harry laughed and caught her hand before she could pull it back. “I’ll try, but nobody’s trying to kill us this year so I may have to misbehave some to compensate.”

Hermione grinned and squeezed his hand. “There’s my conscientious outlaw.”

Harry smiled back at her and turned back to the First Years. “Seriously though, study hard and make sure you learn everything you’re supposed to. Exams will come along before you know it.”

"You don't want to know what happens to people who fail their exams." Luna warned gravely.

Harry 's smile fell as he noticed a particular set of blue eyes looking back over a shoulder at them from the Ravenclaw table. Hermione must have noticed his glare because she leaned into him and whispered into his neck.

“You're making that I-want-to-rip-things-apart face again.” She whispered, “Did we leave something untended? I'm fairly certain we don't have anything outstanding with the rest of the faculty.”

The steel left his eyes as he sighed and turned back to her. “Nothing significant.” He smiled, “I'll take care of it.”

Hermione looked where his gaze had been, and noted the head of black hair she'd been so stupid over so long ago. It hadn't really been that long, as she thought back on it, but it seemed like a lifetime ago. She smiled and wrapped her arm around her Harry's waist and snuggled into him.

She could see at least three apologies in the near future.


	20. Epilogue

  
  


Hollow. That was the word for it. Petunia felt _hollow_.

Deep down she had always known Dudley was not a good person. He had too much of his father in him for that. It had already been a year since she'd consigned what had been left of her son to the embrace of the earth, but the feeling never went away. The knowledge of what he'd done was always there too, it hovered just out of sight and dared her to feel sorry for herself. Whenever she started to, it appeared out of nowhere and supplied images of the boy's mangled jaw, his backward fingers, the wheelchair he'd spend the rest of his life in.

Petunia had no doubts whatsoever that Dudley had earned his fate, but ultimately she knew that had been her fault. He'd been _her_ son, the product of _her_ choices. She knew, in the darkest corner of her honesty, that Dudley would have always ended up the way he did. He'd been a stupid, arrogant, violent boy from the time he was a child.

Vernon's passing had left her unexpectedly wealthy, from the private life insurance they both had and the huge sum Vernon paid from Vernon's company - doubled due to the court ruling that it had been the stress placed on him by the police that had caused his heart failure. Even that had been less than the Yard had been willing to part with in order to keep her from going to the press. Vernon's death had honestly been the best thing that had ever happened to her.

She had used a fair bit of the sudden influx to try to fix Dudders, to get him the counseling he needed to stop his aggressive behaviour, but it hadn't worked. He'd gone straight back to his friends, back to stealing and violence.

Even so, she'd still gone frantic when he hadn't returned home. She'd gone to the Yard with pictures, filed missing persons reports - she'd done everything she could think, even drove around the neighbourhoods at all hours hoping for a glimpse of her son.

When the call came three months later, she had already known.

She saw his face sometimes in her nightmares. Bloated, blue and purple, half-eaten by fish. He'd washed up like that on a beach across the channel. She'd apologized to the officers a hundred times for making them transport him all the way back to Brighton. They'd been very understanding. The worst part of it - the part that squeezed tears from her every time - wasn't that she would never hug her son again. It wasn't that she'd never see his smiling face at Christmas. It wasn't that he'd never settle with a nice girl and give her grandchildren. The worst part of the whole thing was the _relief_ she'd felt after identifying his body.

The officers had mistaken her sobs for grief, but she had wept for guilt. For shame. For the stupid, childish hatred that had driven her to marry Vernon in the first place, just to spite her sister. Just to show her that she wasn't so special. She had been, though and Petunia knew it. Lily had a light in her that Petunia didn't, and desperately wanted. To be special. To be adored by their parents the way Lily was. To be anything but ugly little Petunia.

Even at his end, the tears she shed over her son's corpse had been for herself.

Petunia dabbed her eyes with the back of a finger and sipped her tea. The gardener had been by that morning, and left the front garden with the diagonal mower lines that she liked.

She needed something. Something to fill the hollow inside her. She knew she was on the older side, but older women had had healthy children before. She had a few years left before she hit fourty, if she could manage a decent man and another child or two before then...

Petunia finished her tea and opened the newspaper to the local community section. As it happened, the Royal Pavillion had scheduled a fundraiser for the coming weekend.

A tiny spark of hope lit the gloom inside her chest as she reached for the phone to make an appointment at the hairdressers.

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Want to go hang out in Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Neville asked as they exited Runes class.

"Sorry Nev," Hermione replied, "We already promised to meet Sirius and his personal trainer, and we should check in with Mother, see how Father is doing. It's been three weeks since we last saw them."

"Oh. Alright, next time then I guess." Nevile shot her a smile.

"Actually..." Harry said, "I was thinking we could just go see Mother now, tonight. It's Friday, we don't have any more classes and skipping one Study Group won't kill us. I'll talk to Sirius and see if he and his personal trainer want to meet us in the three broomsticks tomorrow for lunch. You know how he loves to flirt with Madam Rosmerta."

"And how she loves to spank him for it. Alright, I like that better. We're studying three hours Sunday though to make up the lost Study Group time." Hermione warned.

Harry laughed. "As if we wouldn't be studying all day Sunday _anyway_."

"Not _all_ day." Hermione hmphed.

Harry just looked at her with droll incredulity on his face.

Hermione sighed. "Okay fine, probably most of the day, yes. I'll be researching more Arithmancy while you're working on your super-secret project, even when we're not reviewing. Smug prat."

Neville just smiled at their mock argument.

"So yeah, we'll go." Harry smiled back at him. "Meet you in the Great Hall for breakfast?"

Neville nodded. "We'll wait for you before we leave. Let us know how Father is doing at breakfast, though I'm sure one of us will ask again."

"Will do, mate." Harry grinned again.

Harry and Hermione split off from the stream of students and headed back to their apartment to change out of their school robes and get something small to eat. They headed up to the Owlery after, and floated up and away from the castle.

Rather than simply land in Mother's nest, they hovered over it in case Father was awake. Neither knew how he would handle them being so familiar with his Mate.

"Hello Mother!" Harry called out.

"Hello -" Mother began, but Father lifted his head from the hoard and turned a baleful glare on him and Hermione.

"PINKSKINS!" He bellowed, as wisps of green flame escaped his mouth and nose.

Mother reached out a claw and put it on Father's neck, to force his head back down, then she turned to look into his eyes. "Be calm. These two are my Young and his Mate. They brought you home to me." She let him up then, and he blew short flames of indignance.

Mother gestured them forward, and they landed in the nest next to her, as far from her Mate as they could be.

"Sorry about the pinkskins who took you from here." Harry said. "They aren't _all_ bad. Many Questions and I have culled some of the pinkskin drive while you were captive, so hopefully their drive will improve."

Father grumbled unintelligibly while flames escaped between his teeth.

"Excuse my Mate, young ones. He has awoken only a short time ago and was never pleasant in the morning."

"You don't need to apologize for me, not to a clutch-thieving _pinkskin_!" Father hissed at her.

She cuffed him upside his head with the back of a claw.

"DId you not hear my words?" Mother growled at him, "This _pinkskin_ IS MY YOUNG. I RAISED HIM. He is a pinkskin, yes, but also Svurtr. They both carried you here on their backs, AND THIS IS YOUR GRATITUDE."

Father had an obstinate set to his muzzle as he glared back at Mother, but after a long moment he softened. He took a deep breath and blew hot air from his nostrils.

"You are right, I am being a goat's waste." He grumbled softly to Mother. He turned then to Harry and Hermione. "Apologies, young ones. I am not at my best." He said grudgingly.

Harry smiled back. "Think nothing of it, Father. We would have done anything to bring you back to Mother. Neither of us wants to even think about what it must have been like to be apart."

"What's important is that you rest and get your strength back." Hermione said. "We have years to talk."

Father grunted and shook his head, as though in disbelief. Mother shot them both a look that clearly apologized for her Mate's behaviour. Hermione thought it was cute.

"I... if you did free me..." Father said haltingly, "What became of the Balaur?"

"She told us she knew of you, and then refused to tell us where you were. She demanded my Mate as payment for the information." Hermione replied. Mother hissed when she heard it.

Harry pulled the trunk from his pocket and enlarged it to pull out Sulita's skull and held it up for Father to see. "Many Questions did not take her rudeness well." He said with a proud grin.

Mother reared up and blew a short blast of flame. "My daughter is _dominant_ as she should be! Many Questions is triumphant in battle!" She roared. "I am disappointed I did not get to end her myself!" She growled when she settled down again,

"How?" Father asked quietly. "How did a pinkskin kill a Balaur?"

"She struck once, aiming to impale my Hidden Colours." Hermione explained with a loving glance at Harry, "He dodged her horns but she still hit him with a wing and hurt him. After she hit him I climbed onto her muzzle so she could not look away, and I took her mind."

"Impossible." Father declared. "No pinkskin could -"

Mother cuffed him again. "You have not listened." She admonished. "They are Svurtr. You remember Last Shadow?"

Father nodded. "She Mated with Rides-On-Waves."

"Yes." Mother agreed. "Their firstborn was named Breathes First. He Challenged Hidden Colours during his Declaration. Hidden Colours carries the heart of Breathes First in his chest. They are Svurtr."

"So you're correct Father, no pinkskin could do what I did, but we are not just pinkskins." Hermione added.

"Hmph." Father snorted. "If Swims-In-Stars says it is so, then it is so, however strange it seems. It will take time to adjust to such a thing. I have much anger, but it should not be directed at those who reunited us. Apologies, and deep thanks for returning me to where I belong."

"We could change our forms to be Svurtr to show you, but I do not want to cause accidental Challenge by being another adult Svurtr in your nest." Harry added, "It is better that we look like pinkskins while we visit you."

Mother gently bumped him with her nose. "It is gratifying but strangely sad to see you grown so, my Young." She bumped Hermione then as well, and Hermione hugged her. "I am proud of you both, and so very happy to have my Mate returned to me, even if he is angry and obstinate."

"Mother, if I had been through what Father has been through, I daresay I would be angry and obstinate as well." Hermione smiled.

"Probably even moreso for me." Harry grinned as well. "We'll go round up some more food for you and then be off I think."

"Good plan." Hermione agreed, and took his hand as she Resonated.

They dropped another few deer and goats into the cold part of the nest under stasis charms a half hour later.

Harry and Hermione both hugged Mother as they readied to leave.

"We'll visit again soon to see how you're doing and if you need anything." Harry told them.

"We hope you regain your strength, Father. We'll see you soon." Hermione waved down at them as she and Harry rose into the air and flew back toward the castle as the sun set behind them.

"That went about as well as I could've hoped." Harry said as he wrapped his arm around her waist while they flew.

"He does have a reason to hate humans." Hermione smiled at him. "He's probably in pain and feeling weak as well. I know I hate feeling weak, so his attitude is completely understandable."

"You're so brilliant." Harry rolled under her and wrapped both his arms around her to nuzzle her neck while they flew. He sighed contentedly and kissed her neck. "Thanks for being so understanding, Hermione. It's wonderful to see you getting along with Mother so well. I was actually a bit worried about how Father might react."

She squeezed him as well, and kissed his neck in return. "I should be saying the same to you. My family was far more hostile, and you were still wonderful. Even more now that they're taking some kind of interest in my - our - existence."

"It's also wonderful of you to give them a chance."

"Well. We'll see how it goes. They are fifteen years late. We'll see if they can wrap their heads around me being an adult. I have no compunctions about leaving there at the first sign of condescension."

Harry chuckled quietly as they landed in the Owlery and startled a couple of Hufflepuff firsties who were sending letters out.

"Sorry guys, excuse us." Harry smiled at them as they set gently down on the floor and walked toward the stairs.

The kids just stared at them as they passed.

They set to studying when they got back to their apartment, and actually managed a few hours of it before they both descended into snuggle mode.

The next morning, they walked into the Great Hall hand in hand, as they always did. Neville and Luna already sat at the Slytherin table and were already engaged in conversation with the Slytherin first years, and surprisingly Milicent Bulstrode.

Harry and Hermione sat on the end next to Tiffany, and began to eat a bit of breakfast.

"We are going in to Hogsmeade for the day." Daphne told the firsties, "And no you can't come. If you have any problems or questions, you can ask any prefect from any house for help. It doesn't just have to be Slytherin."

"Good." Moira responded, "Blaise is weird and creepy."

"Yes, yes he is." Milicent agreed.

"This is Slytherin, Moira. Do you know for a fact that Blaise himself is weird and creepy, or are you seeing that he's weird and creepy because that's what he wants you to see?"

Moira opened her mouth, and closed it again. She clearly hadn't thought of that.

"Blaise is the only Slytherin boy in fifth year." Daphne continued, "He didn't want to be a prefect, he just wasn't given a choice. So if you didn't want to do something you were made to do, what would you do to ensure nobody bothered you?"

"That's sneaky!" Tiffany beamed. "I love it!"

"Now, it's perfectly possible that Blasie is in fact weird and creepy, but until you know for sure, you don't know if you're being manipulated, do you?" Daphne asked.

All four eleven-year-old shook their heads.

"Exactly. Slytherins should always _know_ the truth, whether or not they _show_ the truth. Choose carefully who you share the truth with. You might have to meet a lot of people before you come across friends you can trust."

Her charges nodded at her with smiles. "Yes, miss Daphne." Roger added.

Neville leaned over and whispered something to Daphne, who flushed a light pink and bit her lip.

"Alright, we're leaving now. Have a good day everyone." Daphne smiled briefly at the younger students, and strode quickly toward the exit. Neville followed her close behind, so Luna, Harry, and Hermione all went as well. Daphne had Neville pinned to the wall for a quick snog when they caught up.

"Bet she learned that from you." Harry whispered to Hermione. She elbowed him in the ribs, but smiled playfully.

Daphne pulled herself off Neville then and straightened her robes and hair. "I'm thinking Tomes and Scrolls first." She said. She took Neville's hand and pulled him toward the castle entrance with a smug grin on his face.

Hogsmeade was lively, with students who'd never before been allowed to go easily spottable in the crowd. They spent a long time in the bookstore, and Harry and Nevile quietly stole away while the ladies were in the clothing store to discuss and make purchases for Hermione's impending birthday.

It was nearly noon by the time they entered the Three Broomsticks, and Harry saw Sirius sitting at a table for eight with a much younger woman who had bubbegum-pink hair.

"Excuse me miss, is this creepy old man bothering you?" Harry asked the woman - who they assumed was his personal trainer - while he grinned cheekily at Sirius.

"Hah!" Sirius barked a laugh and cast a stinging hex at Harry. "Just like your father, little git!"

Harry laughed and shook Sirius's hand in greeting.

Harry didn't notice, but Hermione definitely noticed the woman noticing Harry.

"Harry, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and miss Greengrass I assume? This is my cousin Dora, who has enthusiastically agreed to kick my flabby behind into shape." Sirius introduced them. Daphne curtsied, as was proper.

"A pleasure to finally meet you all." Dora smiled at them. "Old and creepy here can barely shut up about you, so I feel as though I know you already."

"Nice to meet you Dora." Harry smiled.

"Please, just Tonks. I still throttle my parents over their choice of name."

"Any relation to Lord Tonks?" Luna asked politely.

"My well-throttled father." Tonks replied with a smile. "He still can't believe someone made him a Lord."

"He's one of Daddy's new friends then, you're practially family." Luna smiled. "I'm Luna Lovegood, nice to meet you."

Tonks grinned back at Luna. "Your dad was over for tea last week! It's good to meet you Luna."

A stranger walked up to their table then, and spoke to Sirius with a smile. "Is this a private party, or can anyone join?"

Sirius jumped to his feet with a grin and shook the man's hand enthusiastically. "Everyone, please welcome my best remaining friend Remus. He was a very good friend of your parents as well, Harry."

Harry stood and shook the man's hand as well. He had been one of the people Sirius had suggested when they'd asked him for help distributing titles. "A pleasure to meet you, Remus. Any friend of Sirius's... probably needs therapy."

Tonks roared with laughter. "He DOES know you!" She shoved Sirius's shoulder.

Hermione reached over and gave Harry a swat. "We're in public, behave!" She admonished.

Remus took the remaining empty seat while Harry sat back down next to Hermione and kissed her cheek. "Yes dear." He said with a cheeky grin.

"Besides," Hermione grinned at him and Sirius, "There's no glory in picking on the elderly."

Tonks laughed again, and Remus was hard-pressed to keep the smile from his face. His eyes did dance as he looked on Sirius's growing ire. He also couldn't seem to take his eyes from Tonks, who had a similiar problem.

"Bloody kids." Sirius grumped.

  
  


* * *

  
  


" _COLIN!!_ " She screeched as the first contraction hit. It felt like her insides were both cramping and tearing apart simultaneously. Alis appeared with a CRACK, took one look at her, and popped away again, only to return a few seconds later with her husband.

She'd been consigned to puttering around the house for the last few weeks, knowing the baby could come at any time. It hadn't been anywhere near as much fun as when Colin was home, but she at least recognized that not exerting herself was a good thing. She'd spent the entire time just wanting the baby out of her, but she had _not_ been prepared for the level of pain the contractions caused. Now that the baby was actually coming, she just wanted it to stop.

Colin smoothed her hair back from her brow and smiled at her, even though she could tell he was worried and frantic beneath it. He waved his wand at the wall, and two potion vials zipped into the room seconds later. He handed her the purple one.

"Pain first." He repeated the birthing coach's words, and motioned for her to drink it. She already had the stopper off with it halfway to her mouth when he did. It was bitter in her throat and tasted vaguely of mouldy lavender. She choked it down nonetheless, and kissed the vial when the pain simply evaporated.

"Fucking balls." She sighed. "Even when you know what to expect, Merlin's fucking balls that hurt."

He handed her the elasticity potion, and she quaffed that one as well. It didn't taste horrible. It didn't have much taste at all, really, but she immediately felt... stretchy. It was strange but not entirely unpleasant. She might have to brew a few of those for home use.

Colin gathered her bag and her jacket and took her hand while they walked to the car. He opened the door for her and helped ease her into the seat before he closed the door and got into the driver's seat. They'd made the drive to the hospital monthly for her checkups, so Colin knew the way. Gringott's had even supplied him a driver's license that said he was two years older than he was just so he could drive her to the hospital.

She paused to shake her head again at the stupid ideas she'd had beaten into her as a child. Life was infinitely better with friends and sometimes - like then - she was amazed at how much she hadn't known. At how wrong she had been. At how much joy real friends could bring. The care and concern Colin showed her every day in the smallest of things was worth a million empty, arrogant, arsehole Malfoys and all their undeserved wealth.

Colin parked the car and helped her out of it once they reached the hospital, and carried her bag and jacket for her. She held his hand and waddled toward the magical section of the hospital. The Welcome Witch smiled at them immediately.

"Name?" She asked them.

"Pansy Creevey and husband Colin." She replied. The Witch made some notes.

"Have contractions started?" She asked.

"Yes. I've had the pain and elasticity potions."

"Excellent. Head on up to Maternity, second floor, and your assigned Healer will be with you shortly." She finished typing, and gestured to the elevator.

Healer Oswalt was waiting for them when they stepped off the elevator to the second floor.

"Congratulations dear, your timing is excellent." Healer Oswalt gave her a quick hug then strode away down the hall and stopped in front of a room. "Go on in, I'll bring your birthing potion and get scrubbed while we wait."

The room had a comfortable-looking chair in it, some cabinets, and a stack of clean white cloths and towels on a rack by the far wall. Without a word, Colin handed her the prepared wipe from her bag - though his cheeks did go the cutest shade of pink when he helped her get her underwear off and wipe herself down. He put the prepared towel in the comfy chair, and helped her ease herself down to a sitting position. The elasticity potion made sitting more doable, but it didn't make it more comfortable.

Healer Oswalt returned then and smiled at her. "Knickers off? I'd hate to have to vanish them if they were cute."

"They are." She replied, "Both off and cute." She wouldn't have admitted it if anyone asked, but she was very grateful for Healer Oswalt. She exuded the same kind of quiet confidence that she remembered from her own mother, and Pansy desperately wanted an older witch's company just then. She and Colin knew what to do, knew what to expect - even Hermione, Daphne, and Luna had gone with them to their birthing and parenting classes - but she was still scared.

Healer Oswalt handed her the vial of birthing potion, and she thankfully slugged it down. It was tart and sweet and tasted almost like blueberries. The unexpectedly nice flavour took her entirely by surprise and made her smile.

The Healer closed and sealed the door for privacy, then waved her wand at Pansy. The chair reclined slightly, and lifted her feet off the floor while it split in two up the middle from the floor and lifted her legs out to the sides. She then began to use scouring spells on her hands and arms. As soon as the Healer finished and sat on a stool between her legs, Pansy felt her contractions change. Instead of clench-stop-wait-clench-stop-wait, they became clench-relax-clench, and she had the urge to _push_.

"I love that expression." The Healer smiled at her. "I never get tired of it. If you need to push just go ahead, dear."

Pansy bit her lip and nodded as she reached out for Colin's hand. He took her hand and smoothed her hair back from her forehead. He knew how much she loved that. After a quick look up at his smiling and worried face, she took a deep breath and _pushed_. She felt the baby move downward a little, so she did it again. On the seventh push, she felt a great release.

"Yay! There you are!" The Healer grinned widely, and waved her wand around the baby. The umbilical cord vanished, the bellybutton healed, the baby was cleaned head to toe, and began to cry, all within seconds. She swished her wand at the rack on the far wall, and a clean cotton blanket sailed over to wrap around the newborn.

"Congratulations." Healer Oswalt smiled and presented the baby to her. "You have a healthy son."

Pansy took the baby in her arms, and he - _her son_ \- quieted and gurgled at her. She held her finger next to his tiny hand, and he wrapped his tiny little fingers around it. They were so tiny, so cute, and perfectly formed. She wasn't aware she was crying until she looked up at Colin and found him blurry.

"Thank you." She told Healer Oswalt. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome, dear." The Healer smiled back at her. "He'll want feeding before too long." She scoured her hands and arms again, then her robes, and she paused to smile at them again before she left the room.

"You're so amazing." Colin said. His cheeks were wet as well. He leaned down to kiss her forehead, and she felt warmth spread through her chest. It made her sigh, and she spent a long moment just watching the tiny life in her arms. A little life, all on its own. It was as she watched her son stretch his tiny fingers and move his tiny jaw that the penny finally dropped. She hadn't really believed what Colin and his father had taught her about her own upbringing, but as she watched her son - _their_ son - it truly hit her just how _wrong_ everything she'd been taught was.

Colin would never treat their son the way she'd been raised. He would never demand service or sacrifice or _usefulness_ from him. Colin would support and teach and prepare their son to deal with the world. He would love him and cherish him the way she did - and at that moment, their son was her entire world.

Colin took a pair of panties from her bag and used his wand to clean her before he slid them on for her. He cleaned the back of her dress as well while she leaned forward and kissed him. He kissed her back and held his hands out, so she gave the baby to him while she levered herself out of the chair. She nearly fell when she stood - the elasticity potion made her limbs rubbery, and she suddenly had ten pounds missing from her front so her balance was off. Thankfully she was able to reach out and grab Colin's shoulder to steady herself.

He smiled at her and then looked back to their son, and her insides clenched to see them together.

"He's so small, Pans. He's so tiny and so perfect." Colin shed tears down his cheeks, and she felt her own eyes sting again. Colin kissed the baby's forehead - the way he often did to her - and handed him back to her. He put the towel she'd sat on back in their bag, made sure they had everything they'd arrived with, then held the door so she could exit.

When they got to the main lobby of the hospital, several people stood when they exited the elevator. She recognized Colin's father immediately, he was talking to two other older men, but smiled hugely when he saw them. Some of the others began to move toward them, and that's when she recognized Daphne and Luna and Hermione. Everyone crowded around her with warmth and congratulations, and Pansy's heart squeezed just to have them there.

Fenton kissed her forehead with a proud smile and held his arms out. "May I?"

She smiled back and handed the baby to him. He cradled the babe carefully and beamed the whole while.

"Boy or girl?" Hermione asked as she wrapped Pansy in a hug. "Have you decided on a name?"

She looked at Colin, but he was busy fawning over his son. "We decided Muriel if it's a girl, but this," She reached out and stroked her son's face with the back of her finger, "This is Miles. Miles Annisgwyl Creevey."

"He's just beautiful." Luna gushed as she wrapped her in a hug as well.

Harry walked up and wrapped his arms around Hermione while Fenton and the other two men his age made silly faces and goobling noises at Miles. "Congratulations, you two." He smiled at her and Colin.

"Thanks." Colin beamed back.

Everyone wanted a turn to hold Miles, and Pansy felt truly grateful so many people held so much concern for him - for her and Colin as well, for that matter. She hoped she never gave them cause to change.

Harry introduced the other two men with Fenton as his godfather and cousin-in-law, so she felt a bit more relaxed about them fawining over her son knowing they were related to Harry and Hermione. The fact that they were both friends with Fenton went a long way too.

Luna reluctantly gave Miles back to her when she said he still hadn't been fed.

"Sorry, we should get him fed and then I guess get ready for changing a billion diapers." Pansy scrunched up her face at the thought.

They laughed at that, but let them go.

Colin helped her into the car again while she held Miles, and drove very carefully.

"I honestly did not expect anyone to come to the hospital." She said.

"I sort of suspected. I knew Dad would be there, I didn't expect him to bring Mister Black or Mister Tonks. They seem like really nice guys though." Colin replied.

"They do. I'm glad your - that Dad has friends now. He seemed a bit lonely before."

"Me too." He smiled, "He sure smiles more now."

Colin helped her out of the car when they arrived home again, and MIles began to cry just as he closed the car door behind her.

"Shh," She soothed him and bounced him up and down slightly in her arms, "Just another minute and we'll get you fed."

She decided as she fed Miles that they would have to move back to Britain. Australia was wonderful, and she loved their tiny corner of it, but she knew the kind of conditions that existed in Britain, and she found that unacceptable. She didn't know yet what to do, but she knew outrage as she thought of any child being subjected to the neglect and abuse she had endured. They had resources, thanks to Harry and Hermione. They had a voice in the Wizengamot.

"We'll do everything we can." She assured her son, "For you and all the ones who aren't as lucky."

  
  


* * *

  
  


Hermione summoned the sheaf of parchment from one of her impossibly deep pockets, and skimmed it to be sure it was the correct thing before she handed it to Kneescthye.

"We had to work within the existing laws, but that is just a stopgap measure until we can get the laws changed enough to be fair." She said as the Goblin took the offered document.

"Ideally we're aiming for Autonomy, of course." Harry added. "We've already looked into creating shields and concealment to go around the entire city, and it looks to be feasible. As the landlords, we will be taking care of that, as it is necessary to have the rest of the proposal be possible."

Kneescythe skimmed the first half of the first page as he sorted through the legal jargon and definitions, then his ears stood straight up as his eyes flashed through the rest of the page. He jerked the first page off the second, and saw that the rest of the document was details - terms, clauses, that sort of thing.

"I..." Kneescythe's mouth worked, but he couldn't seem to find words. He also seemed close to hyperventilation. "You are serious?"

"Very much so." Hermione answered, "If were weren't, we wouldn't have taken the time to do the necessary research, nor write the required legal documentation."

"The research alone took five months. Writing that document took another few weeks." Harry smiled. "We wanted to be sure everything was correct so there are no obstacles. I even started work on the Ward crystals already. Got me an Outstanding Plus on my Runes O.W.L. last year."

"Still annoyed you beat me on that." Hermione grumped.

"And Defense. You beat me in everything else though." He reminded her.

"Hmph." She crossed her arms.

"Are you trying to establish Territory over your own Mate?" Harry looked at her with rasied eyebrows.

She frowned. "But..." She pursed her lips, then opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again instead and pursed her lips slightly. "No." She sighed.

Harry took her hand in his and put his other hand on top of it. "I'm the only one _allowed_ to beat you at things. I love your sense of competition, but it's _me_ , love. If I wasn't able to beat you in some things, we wouldn't be equals."

She took a deep breath and blew it out her nose as she relaxed. "I suppose you have a point."

Kneescythe skimmed page after page of the legal document while they gently argued, and when their attentions turned back to him, he stood and bowed from the waist. "I will be happy to serve as Liaison, but something of this magnitude needs to be brought to other attentions. Please excuse me for a moment. I am certain that others will wish to speak with you concerning this matter, forgive the delay." He stayed bent in half while he waited for their response.

"Nonsense, Kneescythe. Of course do what you must, we'll wait." Hermione answered.

"Sorry to hijack your afternoon." Harry grinned.

"You are most gracious, thank you." Kneescythe straightened and grabbed his battleaxe from its mount on the wall, then rushed from the room.

Hermione sighed when the door closed behind Kneescythe. "I just love how polite Goblins are."

"Well... provided you're polite." Harry reminded her, "Fudge's undersecretary not so much."

Hermione laughed. "I doubt we'll ever see Spinehook look quite so happy again."

"I'm just sad we weren't there to see it first hand." Harry pouted.

"You know where she is, you could visit any time."

"Pff." Harry scoffed. "And waste time I could spend with you? Why would I ever?"

Hermione smiled at him for a moment before she reached out and stroked his cheek. "I love you too."

Harry smiled back at her and kissed her palm. "So looking forward to getting away again next week. I've enjoyed this year despite remaining at Hogwarts, but time alone with you fishing and surfing and swimming and flying..."

"And cuddling."

"And cuddling." He agreed.

"I can't wait either." Hermione sighed happily.

The door opened again and Kneescythe entered the room, followed by two Goblins they'd never met before. One of them had to be the biggest Goblin they'd ever seen, hard with wiry muscle but fluid and relaxed at the same time. Harry caught sight of a squad of fully armed and armored guards in the hall as Kneescythe closed the door.

"Lord and Lady Potter, it is my privilege to introduce Ragnok, WarMaster of the Goblin Nation and Gringott's OverChair. WarMaster Ragnok, it is my pleasure to introduce Lord and Lady Potter." Kneescythe bowed again.

Harry and Hermione both stood and bowed as Kneescythe did, then straightened again. "An unexpected pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty." Harry said.

"Your Majesty." Hermione greeted him as well.

King Ragnok inclined his head. "A pleasure to finally meet you as well, Lord and Lady Potter. I am gratified that Kneescythe did not exaggerate in his reports. This," He gestured toward the other newcomer, "is Executive Chancellor Irgnuk. I only have one question for you - Why? Why do this?"

"The answer to that question has many facets," Harry began, "the largest of which is Honour and Fairness. The Goblin Nation has been unfairly treated for centuries, as has the Centaur Nation and the House Elves."

"We know we can't by ourselves cure the injustices of the past, but every People should have some place to call Home. It is our hope that this space will begin a sort of magical city where any species of magical being could feel welcome." Hermione continued.

"We... came into possession of a large portion of unused land, and I happen to know that the former owner of that land despised other magical beings. He fervently believed that Wizards and Wizards alone should have dominion over all. Hermione and I find a... fitting symmetry... in repurposing the land so." Harry took over again.

"We intend to - initially - lease different sections of the land to different magical Peoples, and we hope to build a city in the center where they can all congragate and do business, relax and share goods and information." Hermione finished.

Ragnok nodded through their explanation. "And the real reason, without the diplomatic dragonshit?"

Harry and Hermione both laughed. "Sorry, we've spent the last year studying the Wizengamot in preparation. We want to make a space where everyone can be equal and welcome, and stick it to the pureblood arseholes at the same time." Hermione answered.

"We couldn't think of a better way to stick it to the wannabe dark lord and all his idiot ancestors." Harry grinned.

Ragnok laughed at that, and held his hand out to shake, and they both did. "Brilliant." Ragnok said with pressed lips and lifted ears. "You don't disappoint. Thank you, Lord and Lady Potter, on behalf of the Goblin Nation. I will leave Executive Chancellor Irgnuk with you to hammer out the details." He gave Harry and Hermione a slight bow, and left the room to troop back down the hall surrounded by guards.

As soon as he was gone, Executive Chancellor Irgnuk bowed deeply to them, so deeply his ear tufts brushed the floor. "You cannot imagine what this means to goblinkind, Lord and Lady Potter. I thank you, from the deepest depths of our collective hearts."

"It is our pleasure, Excecutive Chancellor." Hermione replied.

"It's a tragedy that no-one has done so before now. We're serious about the honour and fairness as well though, none of the sentient magical species have received decent, respectful treatment from humans." Harry added.

Irgnuk straightened up again, and clicked his fingers. A map of Hangleton valley appeared on Kneescythe's desk, along with quills and coloured inks. "Please," He said, "Share your vision with us and we will do our utmost to see it become reality."

Harry and Hermione smiled at each other, and turned to the map.

"Please correct us if we're wrong, but we figured the werewolves might be best suited to this area here that's still covered by forest..." Harry began, "And Centaurs to these fields and valleys here..."

  
  


* * *

  
  


"Do you, Stubenhocker Odwin Boardman take this woman Petunia Evans to be your wife, to live in the happy state of matrimony, forsaking all others, until death do you part?" The minister intoned, and Petunia felt giddy to hear it.

Her fiance turned to look at her, and she at him. He gave her the same quiet, humble smile he'd shown her the first day they'd met a year ago at the Royal Pavillion fundraiser. "I do." His voice said. His eyes said 'I Love You'.

Petunia hadn't ever heard those words from a man before - not one who meant it, at any rate. Not since she was a tiny girl, being tucked into bed by her father and that wasn't the same, really.

"Do you, Petunia Evans take this man Stubenhocker Odwin Boardman to be your husband, to live in the happy state of matrimony, forsaking all others, until death do you part?" The minister intoned.

"I do." She replied immediately. She had longed for a husband for years, if only for the stability and respectability being married carried, but she found as she said the words and committed the remainder of her life to her new husband that she didn't care about any of that anymore. He had shown her what real love was, and she loved him with every atom of her being. All she wanted was him.

"I now pronounce you man and wife." The minister decreed. "Congratulations."

Her husband lifted the veil from her face and smiled at her. "Meine Liebesblume." He rumbled softly as he leaned in to kiss her. His beard made tingles race across her skin when kissed her, and she loved it.

"Meine Liebestubble." She smiled back and cupped his cheek for a moment before he took her hand and they walked toward the doors of the quaint little church. The pews were empty on both sides, neither of them had any friends or family - at least none they liked enough to invite to their wedding. That was just fine with her, and he hadn't expressed any unhappiness with it either.

They walked out of the church into the bright, sunny day, and down the steps to the waiting car. He held the door open for her, and closed it when she was inside, then nipped around and settled himself into the driver's seat.

"Quick stop at home to change and pick up suitcases, then just the two of us all month long." He squeezed her hand before he started the car.

"I can't wait, love. Can't wait to watch the fish under us and join them for a morning swim, all from our own hut. I can't wait to watch you surf from a lounge on the beach."

"Nonsense, you'll come too. I'll teach you. You'll love surfing, Petunia. You can feel the whole ocean pushing you. It's brilliant. Besides, you don't want to go to the Seychelles and _not_ surf. Think of the stories we'll be able to tell our little ones."

That sent a shock through her. It was the first time he'd mentioned children. She hadn't wanted to bring it up in case he didn't want any - she had resigned herself to it. It was enough just to have him in her life.

"You want children?" She asked as they pulled away from the curb.

He nodded. "I love kids. I never held out any hope I might have any of my own. Being a musician doesn't lend itself to long relationships, it wasn't until I wanted to stop being a musician that I thought maybe I had a chance. Is that... Do you want... kids?"

Truthfully she'd thought about it since they day they met. Dudley's loss had broken her, but she still felt a tiny flame of desire to hold a baby, to cradle a new life again. She thought that might go a long way toward healing. There was no way his children could turn out the way Dudley had, and she wouldn't spoil them either. She had learned harsh lessons.

"I do." She hadn't meant to say it just yet, but there it was.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Lord Sylvus Orelius Greengrass sat at the breakfast table and crossed one leg over the other as he lifted the paper from the table. The _Prophet_ was worthless as a source of intformation, filled with circumstance, innuendo and outright lies, but it _did_ serve to pique his interest in subjects that he habitually then researched on his own. The front page usually carried some libelous nonsense about some celebrity. It had briefly been all about the Tri-wizard tournament last year, and horrible events surrounding it. He had been thankful Daphne was not of an age to be considered for participation. He didn't think she would have wanted to, but children were often unpredictable. He opened the paper to see what sort of nonsense it held, but instead it showed him an altogether different headline.

**KRUM SETS UNBEATABLE SPEED RECORD! SPAIN DESTROYED 150 - 0**

**The Quidditch world was left stunned yesterday in the aftermath of the shortest Quidditch match in recorded history. In interview, Spanish Keeper Rafaso Villa De Ramon describes the match like this: "I'm ready, pumped up for the game, I practice a few lateral bursts, and Krum shoots like an arrow across the pitch! Never have I seen anything move so fast! Then he is holding up his fist with the snitch in it, and I think Rafaso, why did you even get out of bed?"**

**Viktor Krum, on a sport-standard Firebolt, crossed the entire pitch and caught the snitch in just under twenty-seven seconds. You read that correctly. Twenty-seven seconds. After conferring with officials, this reporter discovered that the previous speed record, set by Grady Higginbotham in nineteen-nought-Four, stood at one minute twenty.**

**Is this a new era of broom magic? Was it just luck? Or is Viktor Krum** _**just that good** _ **? The answer might surprise you, in interview Viktor had this to say about his new record: "I...**

**Continued on page 6.**

**For more about Quidditch records, see page 18.**

He quickly flipped to page 6, and picked up the article halfway down the page.

**CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1**

**Krum had this to say about his new record: "I look forvard to beating my new record. I get very lucky these time."**

**When asked about his new speed capability, Krum smiled demurely. "I get flying lessons from my good friends. They not play Kvidditch because they too khonourable. Say it not be fair if they play. They are right. Even just vat they teach me make me so much faster. House of Krum is proud to be friends vit them. I salute you good friends!"**

**When asked who his friends were, Viktor shook his head and refused to name them. "Good friends value privacy. I vill never say, I respect their vishes."**

**Mister Krum had his interview cut short as his teammates all caught up to him and hoisted him into the air and carried him away. They all seemed quite happy with Mister Krum's -**

He stopped reading and set the paper down. He wasn't so invested in the sport that he cared to read about the players, but the simple fact that Krum had set such a ridiculous record and then attributed the success to lessons from friends set his mind abuzz with questions. Who were his friends who valued their privacy? What did Krum learn from them that let him go faster than he already was?

On the surface, it was an irrelevant sporting issue. He didn't care a single fig for which Quidditch team won - except where possible betting might be concerned. The ability to fly faster than anyone else went _far_ beyond sport, however. His own less _legal_ endeavours relied heavily on broomflight to carry cargo from remote areas, as portkeys were very detectable and their paths very traceable.

He made a mental note to research Krum and his friends, and turned his attention to breakfast. He took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out again as he did. He was not looking forward to meeting The Boy again later in the day. Heir Longbottom _was_ a good catch - far better than he'd anticipated Daphne being able to attract. Daphne was a beautiful girl, but he wasn't under any illusions as to just how enticing it would be to be entangled with House Greengrass. Besides, Sylvus didn't actually like Heir Longbottom. He had too much spine. He was the girl's father, Longbottom should be quaking in his boots to stand in front of him. The Boy was not intimidated by him at all, and that made him... irritated. Unfulfilled. Dissatisfied. More importantly, it also meant he would be harder to bully into additional concessions. He would have to appeal to The Boy's emotions other than fear, and that was less predictable.

Daphne took her seat at the table then. "Good morning, father." She said blandly as she inclined her head toward him and picked up her cutlery.

"Good morning." He replied. Even Daphne left him with an irritated feeling these days. He couldn't read her anymore, had no idea what went through her head. It was almost enough to make him regret pushing her into Occlumency so young. Daphne hadn't taken to it like Astoria had, but Daphne was his Heir and she needed it more, despite her talent for it being far less than her sister's.

"Is Astoria not eating this morning?" He asked.

Daphne chewed and swallowed before she answered, as was proper. "No father, she is in her room adding Amortentia to her perfume in an effort to steal my Neville away."

 _That_ made him chuckle, despite himself. "Her ambitions clearly need to be tempered with discretion. You don't seem affected by her aims." He knew with the stage of Occlumency that Daphne was at nothing would show through unless she were grieving or being tortured, but a little social shove might get her to betray some sense of what was going on in her head.

"I am not. She makes the same mistake that most do, and her ambitions will come to nought because of it." Daphne daintily dabbed the corners of her mouth with her serviette, as was proper.

"What mistake might that be, dear daughter?"

She stopped eating and turned to face him. Her Occlumentic blank-faced mask remained in place, but her eyes blazed through it. She had been downplaying herself, clever girl. She was _much_ farther along in Occlumency than she let on. The glare she pierced him with made it abundantly clear that she counted _him_ among the fools making the mistake she alluded to.

"Thinking that my Neville is just another Wizard." She replied. Her voice didn't change at all, but she somehow managed to convey a deep disdain nonetheless.

"I'm surprised you feel so strongly about him." He kept any actual emotion from his voice, intrigued by the notion of her faith in Longbottom.

"Oh father." Daphne _tsk_ ed. "You should know better than anyone my feelings are irrelevant. You will see when he arrives today."

Hm. Perhaps she did know something he didn't. The Longbottoms were horrendously difficult to research. They had always been very circumspect with regard to what they showed the world. Perhaps Daphne was in deep enough with them to know. It would be interesting to see.

"Very well then, when will he arrive?" He sipped his tea as he surreptitiously watched Daphne return to her meal as well.

"His letter said precisely at ten. When your negotiations are completed we're going to lunch and then to Paris to meet friends."

"They must be good friends. International portkeys are..." He trailed off as he saw the scorn in her eyes. As though he'd been anticipated and was not proving interesting. That itself was interesting. Had she surpassed him then? He found himself looking forward to _her_ Neville's visit after all.

Daphne retired to her room after breakfast and left him to stew in his curiosity. Astoria finished her preparations sometime later, and Quibly informed him that she had taken Astoria some food to eat in her room.

Daphne returned downstairs at five minutes to ten, and proceeded out into the garden, to the edge of the Wards rather than to the Apparation point.

For some odd reason, she looked northwest, into the sky.

Curious, he climbed the stairs to his second-floor study, as the large window faced north. He closed the study door behind him and turned his attention to the window, and there was something there, in the air northwest of the manor. He let his wand fall into his hand.

" _Visus Aquila_." He whispered, and the steadily growing speck in the sky grew ten times closer instantly. It resolved itself into a person. He'd assumed it was The Boy, just from Daphne's actions, and he was correct. However, two things caught his attention about The Boy's arrival. First, he was moving incredibly fast - faster than should be possible.

Second, he _wasn't on a broom_.

Sod Krum and his broom skills! Sylvus's mind went directly to what could be accomplished without the need for one. He _had_ to get the boy under his thumb somehow.

He watched The Boy stop just outside the Wards and set down on his feet gently, as though he had simply descended a set of stairs. Daphne greeted him with a curtsey, and he kissed her hand before she led him toward the house. At least they knew better than to be overly familiar in public. He knew that Daphne hadn't soiled herself with him yet, or the magic of the courting agreement would have torn the agreement asunder. As it was still intact, so too was she. It spoke more about Longbottom's integrity than Daphne's, however, and that was the only reason Longbottom had arrived at all. If he'd been some smooth little shit just looking to get into Daphne's underclothes it would not have gone well. He certainly wouldn't be signing any betrothal.

Longbottom had proven his restraint, and had thus proven himself above the rest. Was he worthy of Daphne? Of course not. Nobody was.

Sadly, Sylvus knew that giving her away would happen whether he wanted it or not, so it was only sense to find her the most lucretive match possible. Compared to the other candidates - Nott, Malfoy, Warrenton and the rest - not only was Longbottom head and shoulders above, he was also still breathing. Tiny details like being alive mattered. Besides, The Boy's grandmother was Chief Warlock. Both his parents were formidable Wizengamot members. They not only had wealth, but power as well. Longbottom was definitely the best match - even moreso now that Sylvus had seen him do the impossible. He'd looked into securing the Potter boy after his re-emergence last year, only to discover that he'd been MacFusty all along and had already rejected Daphne's betrothal offer. Not only that, Potter had been married by magic itself not long after so that had been a dead end and a bloody shame.

No, Longbottom was the best of what remained, no matter how much he wanted to hex the boy.

Quibly appeared next to him with a CRACK. "Master, Heir Longbottom bes arrived."

"Yes, I shall be down shortly." He replied.

Quibly Disapparated with a _pop_ to relay the message.

He took several deep breaths and invoked his own Occlumency as he exited his study and made his way back downstairs. The Boy stood a respectful distance from Daphne in the main floor guest lounge while they waited for him to arrive. Another point in Longbottom's favour.

The sound of heels on the stone floor behind him made him pause just inside the lounge and turn to watch his second daughter make her entrance. Astoria had indeed spent the greater portion of the morning on her appearance - not a hair was out of place, save what was artfully left out of her braid to frame her face. Her makeup, while a trifle overdone, at least made the attempt at subtlety. She wore her favourite dress, and heels that made her taller while complementing the dress. She would be another beautiful woman in a few short years. Her entrance reminded him it was time to start worrying about her betrothal and not focus so much on Daphne's. It would be interesting to see Daphne's reaction, considering there was a very real chance Astoria could ensnare Longbottom. Amortentia was incredibly potent, whole Houses had fallen to its influence.

Astoria ignored him as she strode past, directly up to Longbottom.

"Good morning, Heir Longbottom." She said with a coquettish smile, "Welcome to Greengrass Manor, it is lovely to see you here again."

Longbottom smiled in return and bent to kiss her knuckles. When he straightened, he deliberately took a deep breath in through his nose.

"Ahh." Longbottom sighed, "I _love_ the smell of Amortentia. Thank you for that Astoria, it's very kind of you. It's nice to see you again as well."

Sylvus raised an eyebrow even though he tried not to. Clearly Astoria had brewed her potion correctly or it would not have smelled good to the boy in the first place. That meant he could simply ignore its effects, and that was... impressive.

Longbottom looked to him then. "If you don't mind sir, we should get started."

He had to stifle a scowl at that and maintained a carefully neutral face. LIttle bastard probably couldn't wait to get under Daphne's dress. Well, as long as he paid in full for the goods, he was entitled - even if he was unworthy. Still, he was a damn sight better than any Nott or Rowle or Malfoy.

"Wait outside, girls." He commanded. Daphne nodded and made her way out of the lounge. Astoria had her Occlumency mask in place, but he could tell she was crestfallen nonetheless. Her plans had flopped, her weapon was useless, and she would not get what she wanted. He hoped she remembered the lesson, it would serve her well in the future. Always make contingencies.

When Astoria finally closed the lounge door behind her, he turned to Longbottom and pulled his wand to summon the betrothal contract from where it lay on the sidetable. He set it down on the coffeetable in front of Longbottom. It was the fourth version of the contract, after they had each completed the preliminary adjustments. The first counteroffer contract Longbottom had presented had been fair, he had to admit. His counter to it had been ridiculously exorbitant - but to his credit Longbottom had rejected it immediately and suggested a slight increase over his initial offer. On the whole so far, the boy's business acumen had proven... adequate.

The Boy picked up the contract and read through at speed, noting only the additional clauses and stipulations added since the previous version.

"The additional per annum is unacceptable." Longbottom said. He pulled his wand and changed the figure to be fifty galleons more than had been there the last time they met. It was a reasonable compromise.

"Come now, I thought you loved my daughter? Is she not worth a few hundred paltry galleons?" He asked, "Would you not sacrifice for her? Is she not worth it?"

Rather than the conflicted, confused expression he'd expected, however, Longbottom smiled a little smile and shook his head. "I do love her, in fact. More every day. However, this is business, not love." Longbottom pointed to the parchment. "You'll not wring extra concessions from me by appealing to my emotions, Lord Greengrass. Nice try, though. I'm not so naive as I look."

He hid a smile behind his Occlumency. Perhaps he wasn't, at that. Good. At least Daphne wouldn't end up destitute or used as collateral to pay a debt. She had tried to hide it the day Longbottom arrived to ask to court her, but he could tell she'd been excited. He began to see why.

"Very well." He said sourly, and summoned a quill to hand to the boy. He took it and signed the contract, then handed the quill to him. He took it and looked at the boy for a moment pointedly, 'You'd Better Not Fuck This Up' written on his face.

Finally, he relented and signed his firstborn daughter away. He knew that she not only approved of the match but desired it, and that put his mind at ease despite the lingering trepidation. He expected Longbottom to grab the signed document and run, but instead he grinned and stuck out his hand. He waited a moment before he obligingly shook it.

"Lovely doing business with you, Lord Greengrass." The boy said. He bent to roll up the contract, then duplicated it with a tap of his wand and took a trunk out of his pocket. He tapped the trunk to make it enlarge, stowed his copy of the contract in it, then re-shrunk it and put it back in his pocket. "If there's nothing else sir, I'll see myself out."

"By all means, Heir Longbottom." He replied.

"Have a lovely day, Lord Greengrass." The boy - soon to be Son-In-Law - inclined his head toward him before he left the lounge.

He turned to watch as the boy left, and saw Daphne take his hand as they both exited out the front door. They walked hand in hand for a few steps, then rose into the air and passed beyond the frame of the window. It was something of a surprise to find himself saddened by Daphne's departure. With the betrothal signed and Daphne's seventeeth birthday a scant three months hence, he knew it was likely the last time she would call the manor home. He drew a deep breath and sighed at his own sentimentality. He was not yet out of problems to deal with however, and forcibly turned his mind toward the next one - what to do about Astoria.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Fulfilled. That was the word. Petunia felt _fulfilled_.

It was all Stubby's fault, naturally. He lusted after her, made her feel vivacious and sexy, and showed her repeatedly - on a nearly daily basis - that she made him feel the same. Even with the twins needing constant care, he showed what brilliant hunk of man he was by caring for their children with the sweetest gentleness, and then ravishing her like a naughty vixen while the girls slept. She was convinced that she lived the life she should have always lived. He made her smile with her whole being.

She reached her hand across the table and held his while he read the newspaper. Vernon would have grumbled about bothering him and taken his hand away, but Stubby, her Liebenstubble, paused for a moment to smile at her and sigh contentedly before he continued his read. She smiled back at him for a long moment before she got up to clear the dishes away. Elnora and Elspeth happily babbled away to each other from their playpen in the lounge, never out of their mother's gaze.

"Mama!" One of the twins called, followed by a high-pitched giggle.

Stubby immediately put the paper down and went to stand in the archway to the lounge. Petunia put the dishes on the counter and wrapped her arm around his waist as she stood next to him.

"I heard that plain as day." He said with an awed whisper. "Brilliant."

Something niggled the back of Petunia's mind as she watched her daughters and caused an undercurrent of dread through the otherwise perfect morning. They stood there watching them play, content and happy... until Elnora sneezed.

She scrunched her little face up, but instead of a cute little _kerchoo!_ , there was a CRACK _pop_ and Elnora was suddenly on the back of the sofa ten feet from where she had been.

Stubby went rigid in her arms as Petunia's happy dream ended and her life crumbled to ruin and shame.

"Did you _see_ that?!" Stubby demanded with a gleeful shout.

"It's my fault." Petunia whispered. "I'm cursed. I'm so sorry, Stubby. I'll understand if you leave."

"Your fault?" Stubby looked at her. "Whatever can you mean?"

"It's magic." She explained with a pained sigh, "My sister had it - a lot of it, from what was said about her - I never told you about her because I was hoping that it was only Lily. I didn't know it was in me as well. I'm so sorry. After she went off to that school and married that Potter boy and got herself murdered by that maniac, I thought it was over, that I was done with magic. I never thought... And now it's in my babies, Stubby. My babies!" She couldn't help it. The horrible guilt that had eaten away at her so long ago, that had finally abated surged up in her and forced tears from her eyes. "It's my fault. I'm so sorry."

Stubby's eyes went wide. "You... your _sister_ married Potter? And got _murdered_?"

She nodded while she bit her lip.

"Hah!" Stubby coughed up a single laugh. "I must be the luckiest wizard in history."

Petunia stared at him. "You what?"

"Well, now we know the girls are magical, I'm allowed by law to tell you all about it, so I was trying to figure out how, but I don't have to! You're already magical Royalty!" He laughed again. "This is wonderful, Petunia! Just marvellous!"

He crushed her to him in a loving hug, then crossed the room to pluck Elnora from the back of the sofa and hold her in his arms. "I can't wait to show you - no, you've probably already been to Diagon, what am I saying? Magical Paris though, we should go there. And Geneva. Magical Geneva is just beautiful in the summer."

"You already knew? You're _one of them_?!"

"Them?" Stubby frowned. "What do you mean _them_?" He placed Elnora back in her playpen.

"...Magicals." She had intended to say _Freaks_ , but she couldn't bring herself to do it, not while she looked into his big baby blue eyes.

"I guess from your tone and expression you aren't happy. Why? Why are you not over the moon, love?" His eyes grew more pained and disappointed while she looked at them, and that put a knife in her chest.

Because she hated Lily, that's why. With her beautiful face and her beautiful hair and her strong confidence and her oh-so-precious magic. In a flash of unprecedented self-honesty, she realized it was because she had desperately longed for her own magic since she learned of it. How could she not?

Lily was dead. Why did she still hate her?

Petunia looked at her babies, her precious girls as they played with their big colourful blocks. Did she hate her own babies then?

She looked back into Stubby's eyes as he watched her, and her pain, her longing, her confusion overwhelmed her and forced more tears down her cheeks.

"I don't know." She said as she hugged him to her, but she knew that was a lie. Magic frightened her. It frightened her when Lily had shown it to her, and made her hateful with envy. Vernon had hated it as well, though she recognized now that Vernon was just in his nature a hateful thing. She didn't want to be free of Stubby the way she did Vernon.

Stubby wrapped his arms around her and held her close while he rocked side to side gently. "I could not tell you why I left that world until now, it's forbidden by law. I left the magical world behind because I was frightened, Petunia. A dark wizard had risen up against the government, and the things that were happening were too big, too powerful, too much for just a simple boy like me. I ran away from that world and hid."

He'd run away? She took her head from his chest and wiped her eyes. "You were afraid?"

He nodded. "I understand all too well how scary magic can be, love. It can be wonderful too, though." He looked at their children. "I had forgotten just how wonderful it could be. Thanks to your nephew, we don't have to be afraid anymore. We can raise our girls in peace and love, without fearing for their lives and ours."

She sniffed. "What do you mean thanks to my nephew?"

"Your sister was Lily Potter, ya? Married James Potter?"

She nodded.

"Their son Harry - who everyone thought was dead for years and years - killed the dark wizard and everyone who stood with him. He and his wife received the highest honour the magical government can give for it, too. They and their friends have changed the magical government itself. I wasn't kidding when I said you were Royalty, Liebesblume. Your Nephew and his wife are the closest thing to a King and Queen magical Britain has had since the time of Merlin."

"I... I remember he had messy black hair and green eyes. Lily's eyes. I thought he had died as well." She didn't add that she'd thought good riddance at the time. She suddenly felt somewhat guilty for that. He had been a defenseless babe, after all. What if someone thought good riddance about Elspeth or Elnora?

"He still does." Stubby said. "Tall like his father, too. I met his father once at a gig. Seemed a decent chap."

"I don't remember how he was, honestly. I'm ashamed to admit I hated Lily because she had magic and I didn't. I never bothered to try to know either of them really. Lily and I drifted apart before I was twelve."

"How... do you feel about magic now?" He asked quietly, clearly afraid of her answer.

"I don't know, Stubs. I honestly don't. Part of me is afraid and part of me confused and in despair that my wonderful normal life has vanished. I don't want to be without you or the girls, I really don't."

"You don't have any experience with magic then. Not really." He said gently.

She shook her head.

"I don't want to be without you or the girls either, Liebschen, but for their sake I will have to teach them how to control their magic. I can take them to the garden or off to a private park or something if it bothers you."

She just bit her lip, unable to clear her confusion enough to form an opinion.

He kissed her forehead. "How about this. It's nearly naptime for the princesses, how be I go put them down while you get yourself a cuppa and when I come sit with you, I'll show you something. Something small and sweet, to give you a reason to not hate it anymore."

She trembled all over, but she nodded even though it felt like she were being ripped in half by her own heart.

"Okay then. Go pour yourself some tea and I'll be back in a moment." He smiled at her, and that put some warmth in her.

She went into the kitchen and put the kettle on, making tea by rote and then sat at the breakfast nook with her steaming tea in front of her while lost in thought. She would have to either get past her fear and hatred or lose her Stubs and her babies. At that moment she sat while the two equal forces waged war inside her.

She would never be free of magic. Even though it denied her, snubbed her cruelly, she was surrounded by it, her life saturated with it.

That was when she realized that through all her hatred of magic when she was younger, maybe Magic hated her right back.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Harry quickly held his wand to his throat. " _Sonorus_."

The excitement and happy conversations had turned instantly to fear and screaming when Mother and Father circled overhead to scout a good spot to land.

"Everyone relax please, you're in no danger!" His voice cut through the din and halted most of the fleeing students. "I invited them, they're here to see us graduate, just like your parents!"

The two sleek, black and deadly predators landed softly in the grass twenty meters off and walked with sinuous grace to a spot next to the front section of chairs where they'd have a good view of the stage.

Harry and Hermione walked to them and hugged each of the dragons while the dragons hugged them in return. Luna was the first of the crowd to approach, she practically ran toward them, and only stopped when she was next to Harry.

"Hello!" She grinned, "It's a great pleasure to finally meet you!" Luna said happily as she bowed.

"Mother, Father, this is Luna, she was my very first friend here at school. We think of her as family."

Neville and Daphne arrived as well and stood next to Luna as they both bowed.

"I thank you, Light-in-Darkness, for caring for my Young and his Mate." Mother said. Luna heard the dragon-speech, heard Mother growl and hiss, but she also heard what she said in English. 

"It is a joy and a privilege, Mother." Luna grinned back. "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

While Neville and Daphne made their introductions, she quickly turned to Hermione. "How is it I can hear her in English?" She whispered.

"The ring just there, around that small spike by her left ear. Harry made her a translator as his Runes N.E.W.T. project. Father has one too, it's a matching set." Hermione replied. "Took them about a week to stop grimacing every time they heard English." She grinned.

"Remind me to demand he make me one." Luna smiled impishly. "That explains his N.E.W.T. scores."

"I hate that he beat me by one mark, but I'm proud of him too. Don't tell him I said that." Hermione mock-frowned.

Luna grinned and hugged her.

Daphne breathed heavily and trembled when she and Neville retook their seats, and Neville's eyes were a trifle wider than they'd been. The rest of the students and faculty slowly trickled back to their seats as it became clear there was no imminent danger.

Harry and Hermione hugged Mother and Father once more, then retook their seats as well.

It was with no small amount of trepidation that Headmistress McGonagall strode onto the stage and behind the podium. After she didn't get burned or eaten for nearly a minute, the other professors joined her. When everyone was in place and the graduates back in their seats, she cast the voice carrying charm on herself, and nodded her head at Mother and Father.

"Well," She said, "I daresay that explains quite a lot about you, Potter." She fixed him with a slightly brow-raised stare while Harry and the rest of the professors laughed. She turned to address the crowd then, with a nod of welcome to Mother and Father. "Welcome, family and friends of our graduating class. You've all worked and studied hard, and you've achieved what I'd wager many of you thought would never come."

There was some scattered chuckling.

"Take pride in your success, you've earned it!" She said, "And now, with your Diplomas and final marks, I hand the proceedings over to your Heads of House." Some light applause followed her as she took her seat. Mrs. Alexander took the podium first, probably because she had the fewest students who had lived to graduate that year.

She called them by their names, and each Slytherin graduate gleefully - whether they showed it or not - took their pre-shrunk packages and shook her hand. Harry had to admit he quite liked Mrs. Alexander. She was stern, but she always had advice to give with pleasant manner regardless of the topic. She encouraged students to think before they spoke, rather than insulting them for stupid questions as her predecessor had done.

Professor Sprout and the Hufflepuffs went next, followed by Professor Hawthorne and the Gryffindors. Harry and Hermione went up together since they had the same last name, and held hands the whole time - though that was mostly to keep Hermione from attacking the Professor and finding out what her marks were before he had a chance to hand them to her. Professor Flitwick and the Ravenclaws were last, but they had the most students graduating.

Headmistress McGonagall stepped up to the podium again when Professor Flitwick was finished.

"Just one more thing before the refreshments are served," She restrained a smile. "It's customary for a few words from your Head Boy and Girl."

Harry gave Hermione a quick grin and stood up to follow her to the stage. She paused to look out over their fellow students as Hermione took the podium, and couldn't help but smile at Sirius, Remus, Tonks, all four MacFustys, and her parents, who all sat as close as they could in the crowd.

Harry hit her with a silent voice-carry charm before she began to speak.

"It's hard," she started, then smiled at Harry after realizing what he'd done, "It's hard to graduate. We know this place, it's comfortable. We all know where we fit in and we all have friends to make it more comfortable. Today is our last day being the big fish in the little pond, and tomorrow we have to try to adapt all over again, to try to carve a new place for ourselves in a much bigger, much less friendly ocean. Some of us -" she pointed at Luna and Daphne, " Are looking forward to it with enthusiasm and determination, but even if you aren't, take heart. We're all going with you, and we're all going to have the same challenges and pains. We need to embrace the change and strive to make our world a brighter, happier, more welcoming place. Those who come after you will look to you for guidance, just as you will look to others in the coming months. Remember to be kind to the new people, and if you need help planning revenge on those who aren't remembering to be kind, give me a call."

Hermione's parents started clapping first, followed closely by the MacFustys and Sirius and Remus. Tonks preferred to hoot embarrassingly.

Hermione smiled and waved at them all as she stood aside so Harry could speak.

"Alright, calm down. Bunch of hooligans." Harry grinned at them. "I only have one small thing to add. No matter what it might seem like, no matter how it feels today, this doesn't have to be an ending. Our scope will change over the coming years, but friends don't just stop being friends. I personally plan on keeping my friends just as sick of my face as they are now." He stuck his tongue out at Neville.

"Got that right!" Neville shouted back. Laughter rang from the crowd.

Harry smiled out over everyone. "Enjoy making new friends and having new experiences so you can share them with the friends you already have, and we'll see you around." He took Hermione's hand again, and they both gave a little bow while the crowd clapped and sheered again. Tonks was still very noticeable.

Harry wrapped an arm around Hermione while they stood on the stage and looked out over their friends and family. "This is going to make some great pictures." He said with a smile.

Hermione wrapped her arm around him just as he did to her, and couldn't agree more.

  
  


The End.


End file.
